Courchevel: Bernard Arnault's lawyer denies any money laundering

“The operation which was carried out to enable the expansion of the Cheval Blanc hotel (LVMH brand, Editor's note) in Courchevel is perfectly known and was carried out in compliance with the laws and with the support of advisors.

The investigation, apparently underway, will not fail to note this,” explained Me Jacqueline Laffont in a message sent to AFP.

The Paris Prosecutor's Office indicated on Thursday that an investigation had been opened in France since 2022 for suspicions of money laundering targeting Nikolai Sarkisov and that the investigations had been extended to real estate transactions involving Bernard Arnault.

According to the same source, a report from Tracfin - the financial intelligence unit of the Ministry of the Economy - relating to operations involving MM. Arnault and Sarkisov in Courchevel.

According to Le Monde, which is based on this note, the Russian billionaire acquired 2018 real estate properties from individuals in 14, for 16 million euros, via a complex set-up of companies in France, Luxembourg and Cyprus.

The official buyer is the general partnership (SNC) La Flèche. The name of Nikolai Sarkisov does not appear in the statutes, although he would have been the effective holder.

Through La Flèche, he would have acquired three other properties in the same station for 2,2 million euros. However, the seller is SNC Croix Realty, which would have made a capital gain of 1,2 million euros. And its owner, via a new set-up of companies, would be none other than Nikolai Sarkisov.

To finance all of these operations, Bernard Arnault would have paid Nikolai Sarkisov 18,3 million euros. Before repurchasing all of the shares in SNC La Flèche, thus becoming the effective beneficiary of the assets.

"The change of final beneficial owner of real estate acquisitions (...) tends to mask the exact origin of the funds, to complicate the operations and the identification of the actual purchaser, and to reflect a desire to conceal the actual beneficiary of all these operations, that is to say Bernard Arnault", according to the investigators in the Tracfin note, cited by Le Monde.

According to their calculations, Nikolai Sarkisov would have made a capital gain of 2 million euros. But the counterpart of this “transfer of funds” “is not known”, they emphasize.

“Who can seriously imagine that Mr. Bernard Arnault, who over 40 years has built the first French and European company, would engage in money laundering to expand a hotel?” launched Me Laffont.

“I think that the insane nature of these allegations cannot escape anyone,” said the lawyer.