Keyword: Gucci

French luxury goods group Kering faces new tax evasion probe in Switzerland

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Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault. © Reuters Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault. © Reuters

Following Mediapart’s revelations about a vast tax-dodging scheme mounted by French luxury goods group Kering, whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga, a Swiss parliamentarian has lodged a formal complaint with the public prosecution services in Lugano to demand they investigate the suspected fictitious tax domiciliation of Gucci executives in the canton of Ticino, which is estimated to have saved the group tens of millions of euros in taxes and social charges. Already in January, Kering, owned by French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, confirmed that an offical investigation in Italy has concluded the group evaded 1.4 billion euros in taxes that should have been paid in in the country. Yann Philippin reports.

 

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The secret payments made via Panama to former Gucci boss

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The former CEO of Gucci, Patrizio Di Marco, with his wife Frida Giannini. © Reuters The former CEO of Gucci, Patrizio Di Marco, with his wife Frida Giannini. © Reuters

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.

How French luxury goods group Kering dodged 2.5bn euros in tax

By and Vittorio Malagutti (L'Espresso) Et Esther Rosenberg (NRC Handelsblad)
Kering group chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault. © Reuters Kering group chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault. © Reuters

Since 2002, French luxury goods and clothing group Kering, whose brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga, has avoided paying a total of about 2.5 billion euros in tax payments on earnings, mostly to the detriment of the Italian public purse but also that in France and in Britain, according to confidential documents obtained by Mediapart and analysed together with its media partners in the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) journalistic consortium. Yann Philippin (Mediapart), Vittorio Malagutti (L'Espresso) et Esther Rosenberg (NRC Handelsblad) report.

How Gucci boss was paid a fortune through Kering tax-dodge scheme

By and Vittorio Malagutti (L'Espresso) Et Jürgen Dahlkamp (Der Spiegel)
Gucci bos Marco Bizzarri (left), actress Salma Hayek and her husband François-Henri Pinault in Milan in 2016. © Kering Gucci bos Marco Bizzarri (left), actress Salma Hayek and her husband François-Henri Pinault in Milan in 2016. © Kering

French giant luxury goods and haute couture group Kering mounted a tax avoidance scheme, validated by its chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault, to pay via a Luxembourg-registered firm the boss of its Italian subsidiary Gucci, Marco Bizzarri, who was domiciled for the purpose in Switzerland, according to confidential documents obtained by Mediapart and its partners in the journalistic consortium European Investigative Collaborations. The scheme, which began in 2010 when Bizzarri then headed another Kering subsidiary in Italy, Bottega Veneta, allowed both parties to avoid tens of millions of euros in potential tax payments, as Yann Philippin, with Vittorio Malagutti (from Italian weekly L'Espresso) and Jürgen Dahlkamp (from German weekly Der Spiegel) report.