LVMH signed a 2002 agreement to buy millions of Hermès shares from founding-family heir Nicolas Puech and other relatives, despite telling a French court it never sought to acquire Puech’s stake, documents reviewed by Reuters show. The agreement was negotiated with Puech’s wealth manager, Eric Freymond, as LVMH secretly built its position in Hermès. Records also show LVMH and Bernard Arnault’s family holding company paid Freymond’s management firm at least $20 million in commissions and fees between 2001 and 2009. Puech says he discovered in 2022 that his 6% Hermès holding had disappeared after he ended his relationship with Freymond, who died in July 2025. He is seeking €14 billion ($16 billion) in damages in a French lawsuit that names LVMH, Arnault and companies linked to Freymond as defendants. At current share prices, the stake would be worth about $10 billion. LVMH says the 2002 agreement was never executed and that it could not verify Freymond’s authority to sell the shares. The company reached a €10 million settlement with Freymond in 2019 over compensation for his role in helping acquire Hermès stock. French prosecutors are investigating whether Swiss lawyer Alexandre Montavon participated in the alleged misappropriation of Puech’s shares for LVMH’s benefit; no criminal charges have been filed against him. The dispute is the latest development in the rivalry between LVMH and Hermès, which intensified after LVMH disclosed a 17% stake in 2010, eventually reaching 23% before agreeing to sell its holding under a 2014 truce.