Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, is to testify this Thursday at the Paris Criminal Court in the trial of Bernard Squarcini, former director of French domestic intelligence, who is accused of influence peddling on behalf of the luxury goods group.

The former director of domestic intelligence from 2008 to 2012 was subsequently hired by LVMH as a security consultant. He is accused of having illegally collected information on individuals, including François Ruffin at the time when the future MP was making "Merci Patron", a documentary criticizing the group headed by Bernard Arnault.

Bernard Squarcini is being prosecuted for eleven offences, including influence peddling, misappropriation of public funds and forgery. His lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Neither LVMH nor Bernard Arnault have been brought to trial, the multinational having agreed in 2021 to pay a fine of 10 million euros to avoid a trial, as part of a judicial public interest agreement (CJIP).

According to court documents, Bernard Arnault stated that Bernard Squarcini's recruitment had been carried out by Pierre Godé, long his right-hand man at LVMH, who died in 2018, and that he had no knowledge of the information that would have been collected by the former intelligence director.

LVMH paid Kyrnos, Bernard Squarcini's consulting firm, 2.2 million euros for its services.

(Mimosa Spencer and Juliette Jabkhiro, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)