French prosecutors widen probe into alleged €14bn Hermès share fraud
Three Swiss lawyers placed under formal investigation over disappearance of Nicolas Puech’s shares in the luxury group
French prosecutors have placed three more suspects under formal investigation as part of their widening probe into the disappearance of billions of euros worth of Hermès shares suspected of being linked to LVMH boss Bernard Arnault’s failed takeover of the company.
The case, which originated from complaints filed by Hermès more than a decade ago and one of the longest-running mysteries in French corporate lore, concerns the whereabouts of Hermès heir Nicolas Puech’s shares in the luxury group, and whether advisers around him helped to divert the stock to the benefit of LVMH as Arnault was covertly building a stake in the company.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Friday that French prosecutors had in recent months placed three Swiss lawyers under formal investigation on suspicion that they participated in defrauding Puech of his shares “to the benefit of LVMH”.
A fourth person, a wealth adviser to Puech suspected of orchestrating the diversion of about 6mn Hermes shares now worth about €14bn, died last year.
LVMH said on Friday that it was “completely uninvolved in the aforementioned actions and still does not know what became of Nicolas Puech’s shares”.
Arnault’s stake in Hermès, which was revealed in 2010 and peaked at about 23 per cent, has since been sold following a prolonged battle between two French families that dominate the luxury industry. LVMH’s takeover attempt was rebuffed by Hermès, and the company was fined by the market regulator in 2013 for failing to properly disclose its stake-building process.
Now French prosecutors are pursuing probes into Swiss lawyers Alexandre Montavon, François Besse and Vanja Megevand on preliminary charges of allegedly perpetrating an organised fraud against Puech. Montavon and Besse are also being investigated for allegations of aggravated breach of trust and receiving stolen goods.
Montavon and Besse are also being investigated for aggravated breach of trust and receiving stolen goods.
A formal investigation in the French system does not imply guilt and no indictments have yet been issued.
All the suspects deny the allegations against them, the prosecutor’s office said, and the investigation is ongoing. Besse declined to comment. Montavon and Megevand did not reply to a request to comment.
The fourth person, Puech adviser Eric Freymond, was placed under judicial supervision on bail in 2025 on suspicion of breach of trust for abusing the mandates Puech had granted him over the heir’s financial affairs, and forgery of documents. Freymond died a few weeks later after being hit by a train in an incident that has been widely reported as suicide.
He had previously been arrested in 2018 as he attempted to board a plane to Japan before being brought to testify to magistrates investigating the case.
Puech, an 83-year-old recluse living in Switzerland, claimed in a rare interview with French magazine L’Express last year that he had lost his fortune due to the manipulations of Freymond and his associates. Puech separately filed a civil suit against Arnault and LVMH in 2025 seeking compensation for the missing shares.
LVMH condemned what it said at the time were “unfounded allegations seeking to reinterpret the conditions of LVMH’s entry into Hermès International’s capital”, adding it “reserves the right to take any action necessary to assert its rights”.
Puech is a fifth-generation heir to the Hermès family fortune that built a 19th-century Parisian saddlemaker into one of the world’s most valuable luxury companies.
Shoppers spend months or years on waiting lists for the opportunity to buy one of Hermès’s coveted Birkin and Kelly bags, which retail for €10,000 and above. The company, which the family still controls and runs, has a market value of €172bn.