Raise your hand if you haven’t lost money before. It’s happened to all of us and then the first day of cold in the pocket of some coat. The problem is that this money is the fortune of one of the main heirs of the hermès empire. Nothing less than 14,000 million euros.
Nicolas Puech, heir to the founding family of Hermès, has just presented a demand civil against LVMH and Bernard Arnault, claiming the fraudulent sale of 6 million bearer shares of Hermès. However, this is not a simple business demand. Behind there is decades of betrayed trust and a story that mixes friendship, wealth management and one of the most intense stock market battles in French luxury.
A trustworthy advisor. For years, Nicolas Puech, fifth generation heir of Thierry Hermés, founder of the select luxury fashion brand that has manufactured cult pieces only available of a lucky fewentrusted the administration of his assets to Eric Freymond, a Swiss manager who managed his Hermès shares and investments with broad powers.
According what was published by The Wall Street Journalthe relationship between the two was close and based on total trust, which is why Puech signed mandates and documents without really supervising each operation. According to the heir, this blind trust allowed Freymond to make financial movements behind his back, without his knowledge. The rich heir lived without worrying about the management of his fortune.
Operations hidden from the heir. As and how did he count The Wall Street Journaleven the gardener’s wife of one of his properties in Spain, the one he wanted to adoptwarned him of the excess of trust he was placing in his wealth manager and his dubious loyalty.
The critical point arose from the Hermès shares that Puech owned. It is suspected that Freymond, taking advantage of the trust placed in him, sold part of those shares during LVMH’s offensive to take over the share control of Hermès in 2010. Although LVMH finally agreed to withdraw and sold his participation in 2014, Puech maintains that some of those shares came from his assets and were transferred without his consent. The shares were bearer shares, which makes their traceability in transactions difficult.
Complaint against the deceased manager. Upon discovering what he considered a scam on the part of his wealth manager, Puech filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against Freymond for breach of trust and embezzlement, alleging that his manager had defrauded him and that his actions they had disappeared mysteriously.
The situation became complicated when Freymond passed away in July 2025 in an accident in Switzerland, leaving many questions unanswered and adding complexity to the judicial process. The only person who knew the real whereabouts of Puech’s fortune has taken his secret to the grave.
Direct lawsuit against LVMH. Now, with Freymond deceased, and after some failed financial operations Due to not being able to provide ownership of its shares, Puech has decided attack LVMH directly and its president Bernard Arnault, demanding 14,000 million euros.
According to collected Reutersthe lawsuit alleges that the disappearance of its shares allowed LVMH to take control of 23% of Hermès and indirectly benefit from Freymond’s irregular management. Something that the company founded by Arnault has denied categorically. “LVMH and its shareholder firmly reaffirm that they have never, at any time, misappropriated Hermès International shares, in any way or without anyone’s knowledge, and that they do not own ‘hidden’ shares,” the group stated in a press release.
According what was published by Swissinfoafter the share purchase operation and subsequent sale agreed between LVMH and Hermés, Arnault would have obtained a capital gain of 3.8 billion euros for those shares. The first civil hearing was held on November 20, 2025 at the Paris Judicial Court, and the case remains open while the responsibility of all those involved is investigated.
Image | Flickr (Trump White House Archived), Hermès (Kevin Scott)
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