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Home / 2015 to 2026 / Hermès heir Nicolas Puech planned to adopt his gardener, then said his $15 billion in…
Case file s571 · 2015 to 2026 · Undated
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Undated
Died
living; investigation open
Place
Switzerland
Field
luxury (Hermès)
Legal tradition
Swiss civil law · Civil law
Historical event
the missing Hermès stake
2015 to 2026Given awayEuropeSwitzerland
AI illustration: A walled garden on an estate in the Valais, Switzerland
Illustration made with AI for celebrity.estate.

Hermès heir Nicolas Puech planned to adopt his gardener, then said his $15 billion in shares was gone

Nicolas Puech is a fifth-generation descendant of Hermès founder Thierry Hermès. He left the supervisory board in 2014 and was believed to hold more than 5 percent of the company. Forbes ranked him with $15.6 billion in March 2024. In December 2023 Swiss media reported that he planned to cancel an inheritance agreement with his own Isocrates Foundation and leave half his fortune to his former gardener, whom he intended to adopt. The foundation formally opposed. Puech then said the shares had been taken. He accuses his former money manager, Éric Freymond, of isolating him and siphoning his fortune. Freymond told magistrates he had sold most of the Hermès stake to LVMH more than a decade earlier with Puech's knowledge, which Puech denies, and said the two had a romantic relationship for about 15 years. Audits found transfers from a Geneva account that mainly benefited Freymond. Forbes dropped Puech from its 2025 list. Freymond died on 23 July 2025 after being hit by a train near his home, an apparent suicide†. All claims of fraud are allegations under investigation.

What the law took from it

A broad power of attorney over inherited shares can empty an estate before the owner dies.

Sources
  1. The GuardianPress
  2. The New York TimesPress
  3. fashionnetwork.comPress
  4. The Wall Street JournalPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Hermès heir Nicolas Puech planned to adopt his gardener, then said his $15 billion in shares was gone,” story s571, https://www.celebrity.estate/hermes, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

2015 to 2026Given awayEuropeCivil lawSwitzerland