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Fake Hermès bags: the trial plunges into the heart of the crocodile skin business

2020-11-11T08:39:00.996Z


Twenty-six people, the majority of them former employees of the famous luxury house, are on trial until December 10 for having manufactured and ec


Crime does not pay.

Little more betrayal.

Christophe is in a good position to know this.

For the first time publicly, the role of this "informant" was discussed on Tuesday in Paris, on the second day of the criminal trial of 26 people, prosecuted for having set up a chain of counterfeit Hermès bags.

For the first time, in 2010, Christophe went to see customs, trying to monetize the precious information that led to the fall of this mini-clandestine luxury empire, which justice estimates have sold for 18 million euros. of Birkin bags.

At auction, the gendarmes won.

But of the promised reward, Christophe explained to the investigating judge in charge of the case to have never seen the color.

Never mind, the magistrate indicted him along with the 25 other defendants who appeared throughout this sprawling case.

Mostly former employees of Hermès, they could as such leave the workshops with gilding irons, punches, special threads or serial numbers.

Absent at the hearing, Christophe seems to have disappeared into the wild.

“He left with 100,000 euros in crocodile skins of mine.

I have never met him again, ”Daniel K blows at the helm. The first, it is therefore this entrepreneur who came to explain how he made“ the bad choices for bad reasons ”, finding himself among the leaders. of this international network.

An active sector from 2008 to 2012

Rightly, Me Elisabeth Maisondieu-Camus, his lawyer, underlines that among the executives of the sector, his client feels very alone at the helm.

In fact, the Russian and Chinese intermediaries, responsible for marketing, are in Russia or China, when the operations manager, Romain CR, says he was unable to leave Tasmania to come to trial.

Old man in leather goods, it is therefore Daniel who deciphers the workings of this "multinational" active from 2008 to 2012, which had nothing to envy some of its official counterparts.

After a trial run with Christophe, Daniel says he was approached by one of his clients, Alexeï K., who wanted him to provide him with "skins."

The term "leather" is in fact reserved for mammals.

The skins are those of reptiles.

Facing the president, we therefore speak "Alligator", "niloticus" or "porosus.

“That's good, Daniel is a specialist, who knows how to identify both the number of scales and their distribution, a guarantee of quality.

It gets its supplies in Italy, at Louisiana, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hermès.

In addition to its parent company, Louisiana supplies all of Europe with hides, according to Daniel.

With fairly random accounting, to believe it.

In four years, 1,600 skins were sent to Daniel's home in Asnières, who sent back to Italy those that did not suit him.

The whole is paid in cash, within the framework of a system of false invoices set up by Louisiana, as implied Daniel K. “I have no proof.

I give my feeling, ”he defends himself.

"It was also a hypothesis of the investigators", confirms the president.

"The accounting documents provided by Hermès are unclear," tackle Me Maisondieu-Camus, Daniel's lawyer.

“And few,” adds the president.

Opaque financial flows

When it comes to accounting, however, Daniel K. has no lesson to teach.

All of the network's financial flows went through Hong Kong, Croatia, Cyprus and Switzerland, in all opacity.

The benefit obtained?

Daniel launches into convoluted calculations that one would believe made to mitigate them.

When asked what was his hierarchical level in the organization, he defines himself as an intermediary.

“I haven't decided anything.

The one who decides is the one who pays.

And it was Romain CR who paid.

He was the decision maker.

"

"I think they were associated", nuanced in custody the subcontractor of Hermes who sold them, under the cloak, the jewelry accessories necessary for the preparation.

“Daniel and Romain were tied,” says one of their couriers.

“Because he saw my house, explains Daniel.

That's why he took me for a spawn.

“As seems to have done the taxman, who straightened them, him and his wife, of nearly a million euros in 2013.

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“I'm not proud to be here.

It is not the reflection of what I have done all my life ”, ended up cracking Daniel at the very end of the hearing.

He crushes a tear.

Which one wonders if it is crocodile.

Our story in 5 episodes of an extraordinary investigation

1. The illegal small business of a former Hermès "cutter"

2. Zizou, Bébert and N2, the true-false pros

3. Subcontractors who are not very careful

4. The pink crocodile skins came from Milan

5. Beluga, the oligarchs and the Chinese woman

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-11-11

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