Bernard Arnault could be elevated to the rank of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor on January 1, 2024, and at the same time his luxury group LVMH escapes legal proceedings for tax fraud. A Christmas miracle?
Turning suspicion of fraud into a “tax partnership”
This is what we might ask ourselves when reading the survey Mediapart published December 30, 2023 regarding Bercy turning its fraud suspicions into “ fiscal partnership » with LVMH. In September 2019, agents of the National Directorate of Tax Investigations (DNEF) seized one million documents from the group to verify its doubts. However, the conglomerate contested the legality of the procedure, preventing the examination of the documents by the administration which was supposed to return them. “ The suspicions of fraud could therefore never be verified “, summary Mediapart. Enough to question the independence of public administration vis-à-vis large private groups.
Especially since a 2018 law (adopted under Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of Public Accounts) and called Essoc aims precisely for the State to be more accommodating to large companies that not only have ” room for errors » but also the possibility of tying a “ fiscal partnership “. Put simply, this allows the tax administration to dialogue with a company to clarify any transparency issues in advance.) This is what LVMH signed at the end of 2022. And this would not have been possible if it had been in an investigation was underway. Hence the lack of vigor on the part of the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFIP) in resuming the investigations. And this, despite having obtained in February 2023 from the Court of Cassation the right to request the searched documents from LVMH again .
Questioned byAFP at the beginning of 2024 the DGFIP officially gave up because “ this type of procedure is only interesting if there is an element of surprise “. Because the million documents seized in September 2019 perhaps would not have been the same if LVMH had returned them today…
And because good accounts make good friends, the CEO of the LVMH group, Bernard Arnault, was awarded the Grand Cross, the highest dignity of the Legion of Honour, on 1 January 2024.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
