PARIS: LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault is set to testify at a Paris court on Thursday in the trial of France’s former spy chief Bernard Squarcini, a case that has cast light on the lengths to which the world’s biggest luxury group has allegedly gone to protect its image.
Squarcini, who headed France’s counter-intelligence services from 2008 to 2012, was later hired by LVMH as a security consultant, during which time he allegedly illegally collected information on private individuals and violated privacy laws while helping the company fight counterfeits and monitor left-wing activists planning to target the company with protests.
He is also charged with leaking classified information, interfering with justice and peddling influence.
Squarcini’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arnault is not accused of any wrongdoing in the trial after paying a 10 million euro settlement in 2021 to close a criminal probe into LVMH’s role in the case.
He has said that the recruitment of Squarcini was conducted by Pierre Gode, his longtime right-hand man at LVMH who died in 2018, and that he was unaware of information allegedly collected by Squarcini, according to court documents.
However the two-week trial has thrust the billionaire into the spotlight at a time when his sprawling luxury empire is already navigating a downturn in the industry and a reshuffling of top management.
LVMH paid Squarcini’s consulting firm Kyrnos 2.2 million euros for services including allegedly searching the background of individuals suspected of counterfeiting luxury goods.
He also allegedly monitored Francois Ruffin, a French activist who is currently a politician, and members of his left-wing publication Fakir as they planned to disrupt an LVMH shareholder meeting and prepared their satirical, documentary film “Merci Patron.”
The film, which won the French Cesar award for best documentary in 2017, follows a family that lost their jobs at a supplier to LVMH.
Bernard Arnault’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LVMH chief Bernard Arnault to testify in France spy trial
https://arab.news/6g5c5
LVMH chief Bernard Arnault to testify in France spy trial
- Arnault is not accused of any wrongdoing in the trial after paying a 10 million euro settlement in 2021 to close a criminal probe into LVMH’s role in the case
Nigeria police charge driver in fatal Joshua crash
- Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode charged with reckless and dangerous driving causing death
- British boxer's two friends Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami were killed in the crash
LAGOS: Nigerian police on Friday charged the driver of a car carrying British boxer Anthony Joshua that was involved in a fatal crash with “reckless” and “dangerous driving causing death.”
Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was also charged with driving without a valid “driver’s license” and “driving without due care and attention, causing bodily harm and damage to property,” Oluseyi Babaseyi, a spokesman for the police in Ogun state, told AFP.
He was granted a five million naira bail ($3,500) but will remain in detention until he meets bail conditions, Babaseyi said.
Kayode was driving the boxer and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in southwest Nigeria when the Lexus SUV in which they were traveling rammed into a stationary truck on Monday.
Nigerian police and state officials said that Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene, while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.
The Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week that its preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tire before the crash.
Kayode is due to appear in court on January 20.
