Investigation (2/2)
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Nicolas Puech, who today accuses his ex-asset manager of having stolen his family shares, could file a complaint in Paris. Enough to worry those who would have benefited from its titles, perhaps without knowing it, such as Bernard Arnault and his group, who have been eyeing the luxury brand for a long time.
It took him more than ten years to realize it, but Nicolas Puech is now certain: his fortune has vanished. The 6 million shares of the Hermès group that he had held since 1996 were stolen from him. A colossal jackpot – some 12.5 billion euros at current stock prices. As one of the protagonists of this affair which astounds the luxury sector puts it, a “thick fog” covers the daily life of the heir of the founder of this leather goods and saddlery company, which has become a global giant capitalized at 220 billion euros, as much as the management of his finances. The two could be linked, with, at the heart of the matter, the persistent evocation of a double phenomenon of influence.
Then aged 80, from his refuge in the Swiss mountain pastures of Valais where he has been based since 1999, the taciturn heir filed a complaint in Geneva in September 2023. The procedure is directed against his former financial advisor, Eric Freymond, to whom he had entrusted the management of his assets in 1998 and which he dismissed in 2022. He now accuses him of having “misappropriated the majority of his fortune” thanks to a “giant scam” against him, according to the Swiss judicial order dated May 8, 2024.
The first part of the investigation
Is he aware that by filing a complaint, Puech is placing the threat of legal indictment on the shoulders of all those likely to have gotten their hands on his securities? Because if the sale of one's goods is the fruit of a “scam”,
