Three Swiss indicted in Paris over Hermès/LVMH share dispute

Hermès/LVMH shares: three Swiss nationals under investigation in Paris Keystone-SDA

Two Swiss lawyers and a notary have been indicted in Paris in connection with a legal complaint involving the transfer of Hermès shares.

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The heir to the French leather goods house Hermès claims to have been dispossessed in favour of LVMH, the AFP news agency learned on Friday from the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

“The persons under investigation dispute the facts of which they are suspected”, stressed the public prosecutor, confirming a report in the newspaper Libération. The investigations are ongoing.

Nicolas Puech, an 83-year-old Swiss resident, is accusing his former asset manager, Eric Freymond, of transferring his Hermés shares in bad faith for the benefit of LVMH and billionaire Bernard Arnault. Freymond died last year.

Puech filed a civil action in December 2023 for breach of trust, suspecting the manager “of having embezzled since 1998, through Swiss companies that he administered, assets that he managed, and of having sold his shares without his consent and without informing him”, the public prosecutor’s office said.

Adapted from French by AI/mga

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