Billionaire Hermès flew the color of his life's accumulated wealth, because he was kind enough to do a meritorious deed?

One of Hermès' heirs was controversial last year for his plan to leave the property to gardeners, but is now almost empty-handed.

Nicolas Puech sues financial adviser after losing all his assets

Nicolas Puech's lawyers, 81, told a court in Switzerland that he no longer owns about 6 million shares worth about 12 billion euros ($20 billion) in Hermès International, which his family controls. The court later rejected Puech's allegation that a former asset manager had mysteriously caused his fortune to disappear.

The 6 million shares once made Puech the largest investor in the company that provided Birkin handbags and colorful silk scarves founded in 1837. Since then, the company has expanded into one of the largest empires of the global luxury goods industry and made Puech's family the richest in Europe. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the family has more than 100 members and has a net worth of about $237 billion.

The decision of the appeals court in Geneva on July 12 found no evidence that financial adviser Eric Freymond mismanaged Puech's assets or that the fifth-generation Hermès heir had been deceived for more than two decades.

The court said Puech's allegations of a "giant island donkey" were unclear and did not have enough supporting evidence.

One of Puech's lawyers, Gregoire Mangeat, declined to comment, while Freymond's lawyers, Yannis Sakkas and Stephane Grodecki, said their clients were satisfied with the result that included "harsh words" against the plaintiffs. The incident was first reported by Gotham City.

The court's ruling is part of a consequence of the efforts of luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, the founder of LVMH, to gain control of Hermès more than a decade ago. Arnault failed, but Puech became an outcast by his family for his alleged role in how Arnault secretly accumulated Hermès shares.

The fate of Puech's 5.7 percent stake remains a persistent mystery, since the acquisition ended with Arnault selling its 23 percent stake and Puech leaving Hermès' supervisory board in 2014.

Asked whether Puech still owns a stake in Hermès, Hermès CEO Axel Dumas recently replied: "We have no way to see and control them."

The Swiss court's ruling has not yet solved the mystery of where Puech's shares have gone. However, it does provide a glimpse into the 81-year-old's current situation

Last year, Puech – a resident of Orsieres (Valais, Switzerland), described in public documents as an artistically educated French citizen – sought to cancel his inheritance contract with his Isocrates Foundation and was told to start administrative procedures to adopt a middle-aged gardener. Puech intends to leave part of his fortune to this person. That decision left the charity in a precarious position and has had to postpone new grants ever since.

In the case with his financial adviser, Puech said that he had lost all of his shares in Hermès, which was most of his assets, without knowing it, because Freymond was the recipient of all his bank statements. Court documents describe Puech relying solely on Freymond to manage his assets for 24 years.

Since 1998, Puech has been transferring Hermès shares to Swiss banks. He also gave Freymond a series of signed powers of attorney to oversee his accounts. Starting in 2001, shares were sold, bought, and transferred through one of the banks.

More importantly, a profit of 53.7 million euros was recorded from the sale of shares over a period of almost two years until October 2010, at the same time that the billionaire Arnault revealed to the Hermès family that he had accumulated a stake in the company.

Puech did not "object" to outside investors holding shares of Hermès and even considered Arnault an "ally," according to evidence described in court documents. However, his family did not want outsider involvement and succeeded in eliminating Arnault's influence.

Puech fired Freymond in October 2022, began taking inventory of his assets and arranging an inheritance plan.

A year later, he filed a three-time lawsuit against Freymond, first accusing the asset manager of concealing information, unwilling, and unable to return Hermès shares. Other times involved the management of his funds, loans and other investments.

The court's ruling concluded that Puech voluntarily transferred management of his affairs to Freymond, including signing multiple white papers and granting access to his bank accounts.

Puech never said that he was deceived or did not understand what he had signed, only that he left Freymond to choose and decide instead of wanting to increase his wealth. The court said he could cancel their agreement at any time.

"It is not clear who prevented the plaintiff from taking an interest in his property. Puech's blind faith in Freymond is not a sign of dishonesty on the part of the asset manager," the court concluded.