A Swiss lawyer under investigation over the disappearance of an Hermès heir’s shares is challenging a judicial order to assess the heir’s cognitive capacity, a procedural dispute that could influence the criminal case behind a €14 billion civil damages claim.
Alexandre Montavon, who previously advised LVMH during its accumulation of Hermès shares, has appealed the examination order, Reuters reported, citing two people with direct knowledge of the decision.
The Paris judge then ordered psychiatrists to assess 83-year-old Nicolas Puech.
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The dispute matters because French criminal law separately penalizes exploitation of a person whose vulnerability is apparent or known to the offender. Under the law, the offense carries up to three years in prison and a €375,000 fine in its basic form.
Montavon was placed under formal investigation in May on suspicion of complicity in breach of trust. Prosecutors suspect him of participating in the alleged diversion of Puech’s shares for LVMH’s benefit. He denies wrongdoing.
Puech maintains that he discovered in 2022 that his approximately 6% holding in Hermès had disappeared after entrusting his finances to Swiss wealth manager Eric Freymond for more than two decades.
He is pursuing €14 billion in damages from defendants including LVMH and its chairman, Bernard Arnault. Reuters estimates the missing shares’ current value at approximately $9 billion, separate from the damages being sought.
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In September, Reuters revealed that a November 2002 agreement between LVMH and Freymond contemplated purchasing Hermès shares belonging to Puech and other family heirs.
The investigation also found that LVMH and Arnault’s family holding company paid Freymond’s firm at least $20 million in fees and commissions between 2001 and 2009.
LVMH has maintained that the 2002 agreement was never executed and that it could not verify Freymond’s authority to sell Puech’s shares. The company acknowledges working with Freymond to accumulate Hermès stock but denies improperly acquiring Puech’s holdings.
Freymond died in July 2025 while under investigation. He previously denied wrongdoing.
The assessment of mental capacity introduces a significant evidentiary question because the disputed transactions occurred years before Puech’s present examination.
Whether psychiatrists will assess historical evidence of his condition, and which periods their findings might cover, remains undisclosed.
