In Courchevel, suspicions of money laundering targeting Russian oligarch Sarkisov, extended to 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 Bernard Arnault and Nikolaï Sarkisov in the upscale resort of the Alps was attached to the procedure.

We must remain "cautious about the existence of criminal offenses" in this procedure, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

According to Le Monde, which is based on this note, the 55-year-old Russian billionaire acquired fourteen real estate properties from individuals in 2018, 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, one of the world's leading fortunes and boss of the luxury empire LVMH, allegedly 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 two million euros. But the counterpart of this “transfer of funds” “is not known”, they emphasize.

Asked by AFP, LVMH did not wish to comment on Thursday evening.

At Le Monde, a spokesperson nevertheless affirmed that the operation had been "carried out in strict compliance with the laws": "As with any real estate transaction, the parties were assisted by notaries, responsible for ensuring compliance with all regulations existing".

According to the oligarch's camp, cited by Le Monde, the capital gain recorded would have been "only a few hundred thousand euros" and Nikolaï Sarkisov "was not at all personally involved" in these operations .