MILANO EssillorLuxottica sues the world‘s largest bank, Jp Morganfor a computer fraud in Thailand, which caused the lens giant headed by Leonardo Del Vecchio (32% of the capital) 272 million loss.
This is the lawsuit triggered at the end of December 2019, when the company was forced to launch a profit alarm linked to the hole in false invoices by some employees of the lens plant near Bangkok. In the meantime, the company, thanks to the competent authorities, has managed to recover 100 million euros, while the local jurisdiction is following its case, against the employees held responsible for the fraud.
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According to the reconstructions of BloombergJp Morgan would have known about the “Ponzi scheme” of invoices put together by one of the employees as early as September 2019, and therefore 3 months before the company could ascertain the shortfall, which, moreover, had cost the position to the financial director of Essilor, undermining the reputation of the historic CEO of the transalpine group, Hubert Sagnières.
The operation dates back to the early days of the integration between the activities of Luxottica and those of the French giant, when the two companies were still managed separately by their respective managers, and controlled by a holding company, in the three-year transition period where all the bodies controls were duplicated.
According to the reconstructions, Jp Morgan had noticed anomalous transfers of value – from 15 million dollars to 100 million dollars, huge and round figures – to a series of shell companies, started through regional banks. The US bank was in fact the custodian of Essilor’s bank accounts, from which the money would be transferred, and now due to its negligence it has been called to answer for it in the New York court. When asked about it, Essilux declined to comment.