The French clothing store brand Kiabi discovered in July that it had been the victim of a “sophisticated financial fraud on a large scale”, management said on Friday, confirming information from France Info which puts this embezzlement at “100 million euros”. A former treasurer was arrested by the police.
“This fraud in no way calls into question the financial solidity of Kiabi and has no impact on the maintenance of our annual trajectory”added this source who neither confirmed nor denied the amount of the embezzlement. Kiabi achieved a turnover of 2.2 billion euros in 2023.
According to France Info, a former treasurer of the low-cost clothing brand was arrested in August by the judicial police when she left a private jet on the runway of Figaro airport, in southern Corsica. . This 39-year-old woman, who moved to Florida to work in the luxury sector, was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, specifies the media.
Still according to France Info, Kiabi sought to recover an investment made a year earlier in mid-July, but when the company approached the bank, the money had “volatilized“, according to the technique of “bounce accounts”.
“We immediately launched all necessary actions, including legal ones, in order to obtain recovery of the amount of the fraud. We have every confidence in the outcome of the actions carried out by the judicial and police authorities involved”Kiabi management said on Friday.
Created in 1978 in the North of France, Kiabi relies on a network of 616 contact points in 28 countries, including Belgium.
