Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, attends a information convention to current the 2022 annual outcomes of LVMH in Paris, France, January 26, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
The Paris public prosecutor’s workplace is investigating LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault over monetary transactions involving Russian oligarch Nikolai Sarkisov.
French newspaper Le Monde reported Thursday, citing France’s Tracfin monetary intelligence unit, that Sarkisov had purchased actual property at an Alpine resort with the assistance of a mortgage from Arnault.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace confirmed Friday {that a} preliminary investigation had been underway since 2022, and {that a} Tracfin report “drawing the eye of the prosecutor’s workplace to operations regarding Mr. Bernard Arnault and Mr. Sarkisov, prone to characterize acts of cash laundering, has been hooked up to this process.”
The prosecutor’s workplace declined to remark additional on the continuing investigations. A preliminary investigation doesn’t essentially suggest wrongdoing, and Le Monde cited a detailed affiliate of Arnault as saying the deal was carried out inside the scope of French regulation.
Arnault, the founder, CEO and chairman of the world’s largest luxurious items firm and one of many world’s richest males, lost a high court case against French tax investigators in February over the legality of a 2019 raid on LVMH’s headquarters. The raid associated to a tax fraud probe linked to actions in Belgium.
Nikolai Sarkisov is a senior determine at his brother Sergei’s Russian insurance coverage firm, RESO-Garantiya.
LVMH and RESO-Garantiya didn’t reply to CNBC requests for remark.