Two Swiss lawyers and a notary have been charged in Paris in the Hermès shares affair. An heir to the French luxury department store says it was expropriated in favor of LVMH. The AFP learned this on Friday from the Paris public prosecutor’s office, which confirmed information from the daily newspaper Libération.
83-year-old Nicolas Puech, who lives in Switzerland, accuses his former asset manager Eric Freymond of robbing him of his shares. This was done for the benefit of LVMH and the billionaire Bernard Arnault.
In December 2023 he appeared as a co-plaintiff for breach of trust. He suspects the administrator of “having embezzled assets through Swiss companies he managed since 1998.” He is also said to have “sold his shares without his consent and without informing him,” according to the public prosecutor.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, an investigation against unknown persons was initiated on November 19, 2015. This came after a lawsuit filed by Hermès International the previous month. The accusation was forgery and use of counterfeits, with Freymond under suspicion.
Freymond, who was previously charged with forgery in December 2019, was charged again on July 9, 2025. The charges were serious breach of trust between 1998 and 2023 and forgery and use of counterfeits in France and Switzerland in 2024 and 2025. He was then placed under judicial supervision and had to pay bail of five million euros.
But the 67-year-old asset manager “ended his life” shortly afterwards on July 21, 2025, prosecutors said. The public proceedings against him were therefore discontinued. Several of his alleged accomplices have been charged in the last two months.
On April 9, Swiss lawyer Vanjia Megevand was charged with attempted gang fraud in 2025 to the detriment of Puech. On May 18, the Swiss lawyer François Besse was charged with aiding and abetting serious breach of trust; receiving stolen property; forgery of documents in 2024 and 2025; charged with attempted gang fraud in 2024-2025 and a forged loan agreement.
On May 27, Alexandre Montavon was also charged. The Swiss lawyer who manages the Dilico company is suspected of aiding and abetting serious breach of trust between 2001 and 2014. He is said to have been involved in the embezzlement of Puech’s Hermès shares for the benefit of LVMH and is also accused of receiving stolen goods.
“The accused persons deny the acts with which they are accused,” emphasized the public prosecutor’s office, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
In December, LVMH and its shareholder “strongly confirmed that they had never embezzled shares in Hermès International.”
This article was created using digital tools translated.
FashionUnited uses artificial intelligence to speed up the translation of articles and improve the end result. They help us to make FashionUnited’s international reporting quickly and comprehensively accessible to a German-speaking readership. Articles translated using AI-based tools are proofread and carefully edited by our editors before they are published. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected]