But there’s a scandal beneath the style. Last month’s court ruling is the latest development in a fascinating story that involves an inheritance dispute, feuding relatives and the so-called “handbag wars”.
On July 24, the appeals court in Geneva upheld the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s findings that there was no evidence of mismanagement on Freymond’s part. “The ‘gigantic fraud’ to which he was victim was undetectable to common mortals” was the court’s rather sardonic ruling, along with findings that Puech’s allegations lacked clarity and were not sufficiently backed up.
When contacted by the Telegraph for comment, Grégoire Mangeat and Fanny Margairaz, Nicolas Puech’s newly appointed Geneva-based lawyers, said they were in the process of studying the ruling and did not wish to comment at this stage.
Meanwhile Freymond’s lawyers, Yannis Sakkas and Stéphane Grodecki, told the Telegraph their client was shocked by Puech’s accusation.
“He [Puech] confirmed several times before the French justice that he alone handled the historical stocks of Hermès,” they said, adding: “Our client will now examine all his legal possibilities to defend his honour.”
Puech alleged in court that Freymond had received all of his bank statements for the past 24 years. He also said that in 1998 he had transferred his Hermès shares to Swiss banks and had given Freymond signed mandates to oversee those accounts.
In 2022 Puech cancelled those mandates and dismissed Freymond so that he could organise his own succession plans. Puech then filed three cases against Freymond in 2023, alleging that his business manager had withheld information about the shares.
But the Swiss court found that he had left Freymond to decide what to do with his growing wealth, adding he could have revoked his agreement with Freymond at any time. His “blind trust” in Freymond was not, the court declared, evidence that the latter had acted dishonestly.
In a sign the exact fate of the shares remains unknown, Hermès executive chairman Axel Dumas reportedly said during an earnings call last week that the company doesn’t “have a way to see and control them”.