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Financial transactions between billionaire LVMH owner Bernard Arnault and Russian businessman Nikolai Sarkisov are being investigated by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The office said on Friday that the transactions had been added to a preliminary probe launched in 2022.
Prosecutors did not disclose the target of the preliminary probe, but said that potentially suspicious financial transactions between Arnault and Sarkisov had been added to the inquiry after the office received an alert from Tracfin, the French finance ministry’s financial investigation service.
In France, the start of an investigation does not imply any guilt for those involved.
Arnault’s spokesperson declined to comment. Tracfin did not respond to requests for comment.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that Arnault had allegedly been involved in a series of complex real estate transactions with the Russian in 2018 in Courchevel, the Alpine ski resort town where Arnault owns the luxury Cheval Blanc hotel.
In one part of the transaction, which involved 14 properties Sarkisov owned in the town, Arnault’s companies allegedly provided a loan equivalent to value of the properties to the Russian.
The French billionaire then purchased the entity that held the real estate assets, the paper reported, citing Tracfin documents from 2022 that said the operations “may characterise acts of money laundering”.
According to Le Monde, a person close to Arnault said the transaction had been “carried out in strict compliance with the laws,” adding “the parties were assisted by notaries, responsible for ensuring compliance with all existing regulations”.
The FT was not able to independently verify Le Monde’s reporting.
LVMH is one of Europe’s biggest companies by market capitalisation and the world’s leading luxury group, with a stable of 75 brands that includes fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior as well as hospitality groups Cheval Blanc and Belmond. The Arnault family fortune is estimated at $184.6bn, according to Forbes, and Arnault’s five children all work in the family business.
Sarkisov denied any personal involvement in the real estate deals in statements sent through his company Reso-Garantia and said no contact or request for documents had been received from any French authority in connection with the preliminary probe.
“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,” he said.
“All transactions were carried out by French companies, through French notaries by French lawyers on all sides. This was a usual real estate deal,” he added.
Sarkisov is one of the wealthiest people in Russia with an estimated fortune of $850mn according to Forbes. Alongside his brother Sergey, he built his wealth through one of Russia’s top insurance companies, Reso-Garantia, where they hold a controlling stake of more than 60 per cent.
The Sarkisov brothers have both Russian and Armenian citizenship and have served as honorary consuls for Armenia in various countries, including Nikolai’s posting in Lyon.
In 2021, the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy became the subject of a preliminary investigation in France on suspicion of influence peddling after he was hired as a special adviser to Reso-Garantia.
Additional reporting by Leila Abboud
