© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Bernard Arnault, Chairman and Chief Government Officer of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, speaks throughout a press convention to announce a LVMH sponsorship deal for the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games on the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris, France, Jul
PARIS (Reuters) – A monetary transaction below investigation in France involving LVMH proprietor Bernard Arnault was carried out in full respect of the regulation, his lawyer mentioned on Saturday.
The Paris public prosecutor’s workplace confirmed on Friday that it’s investigating monetary transactions involving Arnault and Russian businessman Nikolai Sarkisov.
Le Monde, citing the French finance ministry’s anti-money laundering unit Tracfin, reported on Thursday that Sarkisov had acquired actual property at a luxurious Alpine resort through a fancy transaction through which Arnault, by means of considered one of his firms, had offered a mortgage.
“The operation permitting the extension of the Cheval Blanc resort in Courcheval was completely identified about and was carried out in full respect of the regulation,” lawyer Jacqueline Laffont mentioned in a press release to Reuters.
“Media protection of those leaks and the insinuations which have adopted has made it obligatory to reply. These allegations are as absurd as they’re baseless.”
The prosecutors workplace mentioned on Friday {that a} preliminary investigation had been opened in 2022 and mentioned it could not make additional touch upon an ongoing investigation.
In France, a prelimary investigation doesn’t essentially indicate wrongdoing by these involved, for whom the presumption of innocence applies.
An unidentified Tracfin official informed Le Monde the transactions involving Arnault and Sarkisov, who each acted by means of a fancy internet of authorized entities, might have been aimed toward concealing the origins of the funds used.
