The leading French luxury goods company Kering, owned by the ultra wealthy Pinault family, saved 39 million euros in tax by paying the former boss of its subsidiary Gucci via a company in Panama, according to documents obtained by Mediapart and shared with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC). The French company also lied about its tax avoidance schemes to two separate investigations carried out by the French Senate. Yann Philippin investigates.
Last year Mediapart revealed how the luxury goods and clothing group Kering, headed by billionaire chief executive François-Henri Pinault, and whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga, avoided paying a total of about 2.5 billion euros in tax payments on earnings, via Switzerland. Kering also dodged 50 million euros in Italian taxes on the salary of Gucci's current boss, Marco Bizzarri, by paying him via a company in Luxembourg and using bogus residential tax status in Switzerland.
