World’s leading high-end group LVMH head Bernard Arnault provides the group’s yearly outcomes 2022 in Paris on January 26, 2023.
Stefano Rellandini|AFP|Getty Images
Billionaire LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault has actually countered at accusations of cash laundering, after the Paris district attorney’s workplace validated it is examining monetary deals in between Arnault and Russian oligarch Nikolai Sarkisov.
The district attorney’s workplace validated Friday that an initial examination had actually been in progress because 2022 which a report from France’s Tracfin monetary intelligence system connecting to an Alpine property purchase by Sarkisov and “likely to characterize acts of money laundering” had actually been given its attention.
Spokespeople for both Arnault, the CEO and chairman of the world’s biggest high-end items business and Europe’s wealthiest guy, and Sarkisov, a senior executive at Russian insurance provider RESO-Garantia, have actually emphatically rejected any misdeed.
An initial examination does not recommend a criminal activity has actually been dedicated. In a declaration, Arnault’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, stated the accusations were “absurd and unfounded.”
“The transaction that allowed for the expansion of the Hotel Cheval Blanc in Courchevel is perfectly known and was conducted in accordance with the law and with legal support. The investigation, seemingly under way, will demonstrate these facts,” she stated in an emailed declaration over the weekend.
“Furthermore, who could seriously imagine that Bernard Arnault, who has developed over the past 40 years the leading French and European company, would pursue money laundering to expand a hotel? I believe the senseless nature of these allegations will be recognized by all.”
French paper Le Monde reported Thursday, mentioning Tracfin, that Sarkisov got home in the French ski resort of Courchevel utilizing a loan from among Arnault’s business.
RESO-Garantia Deputy CEO Igor Ivanov informed CNBC on Friday that neither the business, nor Nikolai Sarkisov personally, had actually been associated with the deal, which Sarkisov and Arnault had actually never ever fulfilled.
“The transaction was managed by a small investment unit which invests professionally in European real estate. It consisted of acquiring flats in an old building in Courchevel from various private owners, with the view to sell them later to a developer once the entire building was bought out,” Ivanov stated in an e-mail.
“All transactions were carried out by French companies, through French notaries by French lawyers on all sides. This was a usual real estate deal.”
Correction: Jacqueline Laffont is Arnault’s lawyer. An earlier variation misspelled her name.
