Paris: a former Louboutin employee suspected of having stolen and resold nearly 1.5 million euros of goods

A former employee of the luxury shoe brand Christian Louboutin was arrested on November 5 in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, suspected of having stolen around 1,400 pieces of leather goods and pairs of shoes for nearly 1.5 million euros in goodslearned this Wednesday franceinfo from a source close to the case. This source specifies that this woman, of French nationality, aged 30, was indicted and placed under judicial supervision.

The story begins in September 2023, when a Louboutin employee discovered two Facebook pages specializing in the sale of products from the new “Marvel” collection. Except that it is not yet officially on sale. A report was immediately sent to Louboutin's legal director and the company realized that the models sold on these pages had in fact been stolen. The brand then engages a private detective who traces back to a buyer in the United Stateswhich gives the name of this former employee, who worked until July 2023 at the Parisian Louboutin showroom on rue du Louvre.

Also suspected of theft at Dior

It is in this showroom that she is suspected of having stolen 700 pairs of shoes and 700 models of leather goods. From August 2023, she was hired at Dior where she became logistics coordinator, her job being to manage the flow of prototypes for the luxury brand. Here again, she is suspected of having implemented the same process to steal products from the brand to resell them.

During the search of this woman's home, carried out by police officers from the 1st judicial police district of Paris (1st DPJ), investigators came across 192 luxury pieces from Dior and Louboutin with an estimated market value of 145,000 euros. Four mobile phones belonging to her were also seized, for which she refused to give the access codes, two cars including a Mercedes class A placed under judicial seal. In this car, the police discovered two bags and two pairs of Louboutin shoes.

The suspect denies the facts

The investigators also traced the financial flows of this woman. They realized that many sums of money, more than 400,000 euros passed through several of his accountssums which far exceeded his income.

While in police custody, this woman denied the thefts and all the charges against her, blaming his colleagues : she assured the police that many Louboutin employees stole the brand's products as they wanted from its Parisian showroom, the stocks being, according to her, left unsupervised. Confronted with the products discovered at home, this woman assures that she bought them via private sales organized by Dior and Louboutin.