The Strange Case of an Hermès Heir, an Emir and a Deal Gone Wrong
A new lawsuit filed in federal court late last month says that Mr. Puech recently claimed he does hold that stake, about 5 percent of the company, and had signed a deal to sell more than six million shares in Hermès to the royal family of Qatar. But Mr. Puech has also previously told courts in Switzerland, where he lives, that his shares had disappeared in the hands of a wealth manager.
The complaint in federal court in the District of Columbia, now under seal, accused Mr. Puech of failing to honor the sale, adding fresh intrigue to the enduring enigma of his wealth and offering a glimpse into the luxury ambitions of Qatar's monarchy. The original suit was rejected on a technicality by the court, and the plaintiff has refiled with a motion to keep it under seal.
Mr. Puech, 82, is a great-grandson of Thierry Hermès, a 19th-century saddle maker who turned his business into a fashion powerhouse revered even by other fashion brands. Hermès — known, among other things, for the exclusive Birkin bags it sells only to insiders — was valued at $300 billion in mid-February, just days after Mr. Puech signed a deal to sell his shares, then worth over $15 billion, according to filings in the suit.
It is not the first time Mr. Puech and his slice of the family fortune have been the subjects of great debate and litigation.
In 2023, he made waves after moving to adopt his middle-aged, married Moroccan gardener to bequeath him half his fortune, prompting resistance from a charity he had formed, which expected the inheritance.
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Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
How an LAPD internal affairs detective became known as ‘The Grim Reaper'
In a police department with a long tradition of colorful nicknames — from 'Jigsaw John' to 'Captain Hollywood' — LAPD Sgt. Joseph Lloyd stands out. 'The Grim Reaper.' At least that's what some on the force have taken to calling the veteran Internal Affairs detective, usually out of earshot. According to officers who have found themselves under investigation by Lloyd, he seems to relish the moniker and takes pleasure in ending careers, even if it means twisting facts and ignoring evidence. But Lloyd's backers maintain his dogged pursuit of the truth is why he has been entrusted with some of the department's most politically sensitive and potentially embarrassing cases. Lloyd, 52, declined to comment. But The Times spoke to more than half a dozen current or former police officials who either worked alongside him or fell under his scrutiny. During the near decade that he's been in Internal Affairs, Lloyd has investigated cops of all ranks. When a since-retired LAPD officer was suspected of running guns across the Mexican border, the department turned to Lloyd to bust him. In 2020, when it came out that members of the elite Metropolitan Division were falsely labeling civilians as gang members in a police database, Lloyd was tapped to help unravel the mess. And when a San Fernando Valley anti-gang squad was accused in 2023 of covering up shakedowns of motorists, in swooped the Reaper again. Recently he was assigned to a department task force looking into allegations of excessive force by police against activists who oppose the government's immigration crackdown. At the LAPD, as in most big-city police departments across the country, Internal Affairs investigators tend to be viewed with suspicion and contempt by their colleagues. They usually try to operate in relative anonymity. Not Lloyd. The 24-year LAPD veteran has inadvertently become the face of a pitched debate over the LAPD's long-maligned disciplinary system. The union that represents most officers has long complained that well-connected senior leaders get favorable treatment. Others counter that rank-and-file cops who commit misconduct are routinely let off the hook. A recent study commissioned by Chief Jim McDonnell found that perceived unfairness in internal investigations is a 'serious point of contention' among officers that has contributed to low morale. McDonnell has said he wants to speed up investigations and better screen complaints, but efforts by past chiefs and the City Council to overhaul the system have repeatedly stalled. Sarah Dunster, 40, was a sergeant working in the LAPD's Hollywood division in 2021 when she learned she was under investigation for allegedly mishandling a complaint against one of her officers, who was accused of groping a woman he arrested. Dunster said she remembers being interviewed by Lloyd, whose questions seemed designed to trip her up and catch her in a lie, rather than aimed at hearing her account of what happened, she said. Some of her responses never made it into Lloyd's report, she said. 'He wanted to fire me,' she said. Dunster was terminated over the incident, but she appealed and last week a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted a reprieve that allows her to potentially get her job back. Others who have worked with Lloyd say he is regarded as a savvy investigator who is unfairly being vilified for discipline decisions that are ultimately made by the chief of police. A supervisor who oversaw Lloyd at Internal Affairs — and requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media — described him as smart, meticulous and 'a bulldog.' 'Joe just goes where the facts lead him and he doesn't have an issue asking the hard questions,' the supervisor said. On more than one occasion, the supervisor added, Internal Affairs received complaints from senior department officials who thought that Lloyd didn't show them enough deference during interrogations. Other supporters point to his willingness to take on controversial cases to hold officers accountable, even while facing character attacks from his colleagues, their attorneys and the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League. Officers have sniped about his burly build, tendency to smile during interviews and other eccentricities. He wears two watches — one on each wrist, a habit he has been heard saying he picked up moonlighting as a high school lacrosse referee. But he has also been criticized as rigid and uncompromising, seeming to fixate only on details that point to an officer's guilt. People he has grilled say that when he doesn't get the answer he's looking for, he has a Columbo-esque tendency to ask the same question in different ways in an attempt to elicit something incriminating. And instead of asking officers to clarify any discrepancies in their statements, Lloyd automatically assumes they are lying, some critics said. Mario Munoz, a former LAPD Internal Affairs lieutenant who opened a boutique firm that assists officers fighting employment and disciplinary cases, recently released a scathing 60-page report questioning what he called a series of troubling lapses in the LAPD's 2023 investigation of the Mission gang unit. The report name-drops Lloyd several times. The department accused several Mission officers of stealing brass knuckles and other items from motorists in the San Fernando Valley, and attempting to hide their actions from their supervisors by switching off their body-worn cameras. Munoz said he received calls from officers who said Lloyd had violated their due process rights, which potentially opens the city up to liability. Several have since lodged complaints against Lloyd with the department. He alleged Lloyd ultimately singled out several 'scapegoats to shield higher-level leadership from scrutiny.' Until he retired from the LAPD in 2014, Munoz worked as both an investigator and an auditor who reviewed landmark internal investigations into the beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the Rampart gang scandal in which officers were accused of robbing people and planting evidence, among other crimes. Munoz now echoes a complaint from current officers that Internal Affairs in general, and Lloyd in particular, operate to protect the department's image at all costs. 'He's the guy that they choose because he doesn't question management,' Munoz said of Lloyd. In the Mission case, Munoz pointed to inconsistent outcomes for two captains who oversaw the police division accused of wrongdoing: One was transferred and later promoted, while another is fighting for his job amid accusations that he failed to rein in his officers. Two other supervisors — Lt. Mark Garza and Sgt. Jorge 'George' Gonzalez — were accused by the department of creating a 'working environment that resulted in the creation of a police gang,' according to an internal LAPD report. Both Garza and Gonzalez have sued the city, alleging that even though they reported the wrongdoing as soon as they became aware of it, they were instead punished by the LAPD after the scandal became public. According to Munoz's report and interviews with department sources, Lloyd was almost single-handedly responsible for breaking the Mission case open. It began with a complaint in late December 2022 made by a motorist who said he was pulled over and searched without reason in a neighboring patrol area. Lloyd learned that the officers involved had a pattern of not documenting traffic stops — exploiting loopholes in the department's auditing system for dashboard and body cameras. The more Lloyd dug, the more instances he uncovered of these so-called 'ghost stops.' A few months later, undercover Internal Affairs detectives began tailing the two involved officers — something that Garza and Gonzalez both claimed they were kept in the dark about. As of last month, four officers involved had been fired and another four had pending disciplinary hearings where their jobs hung in the balance. Three others resigned before the department could take action. The alleged ringleader, Officer Alan Carrillo, faces charges of theft and 'altering, planting or concealing evidence.' Court records show he was recently offered pretrial diversion by L.A. County prosecutors, which could spare him jail but require him to stop working in law enforcement. Carrillo has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In an interview with The Times, Gonzalez — the sergeant who is facing termination — recalled a moment during a recorded interrogation that he found so troubling he contacted the police union director Jamie McBride, to express concern. McBride, he said, went to Lloyd's boss, then-deputy chief Michael Rimkunas, seeking Lloyd's removal from Internal Affairs. The move failed. Lloyd kept his job. Rimkunas confirmed the exchange with the police union leader in an interview with The Times. He said that while he couldn't discuss Lloyd specifically due to state personnel privacy laws, in general the department assigns higher-profile Internal Affairs cases to detectives with a proven track record. Gonzalez, though, can't shake the feeling that Lloyd crossed the line in trying to crack him during an interrogation. He said that at one point while Lloyd was asking questions, the detective casually flipped over his phone, which had been sitting on the table. On the back of the protective case, Gonzalez said, was a grim reaper sticker. 'And then as he turned it he looked at me as if to get a reaction from me,' Gonzalez said. 'It was definitely a way of trying to intimidate me for sure.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Sierra Club in turmoil after board fires executive director
The Sierra Club, one of the nation's oldest and most prominent nonprofit environmental groups, was thrown into upheaval this week after its executive director was fired. In an email to staff Monday, Sierra Club President Patrick Murphy said the board of directors had voted unanimously to terminate Ben Jealous after conducting 'an extensive evaluation of his conduct.' Jealous' tenure had been tumultuous. He clashed with staff over sweeping layoffs and faced sharp criticism from ousted high-level employees, volunteers and some notable environmental advocates. They said the Oakland-based organization had stifled differing opinions and had become weakened as the Trump administration rolled back environmental protections. The group's board had placed Jealous on leave in July. Murphy said in the Monday email that the board's decision was 'a difficult but principled one' to 'ensure every individual at the Sierra Club is held equally accountable, with no special treatment or favor for those holding influence and power.' The Sierra Club declined to give specific details on why Jealous, who ran the organization out of Washington, D.C., was fired. Jonathon Berman, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club, said that Jealous had 'engaged in conduct that constitutes cause under his employment agreement.' Berman clarified that the decision had 'nothing whatsoever to do with layoffs' or controversial hiring moves by Jealous. In a statement to The Times, Jealous defended his record, saying he strengthened the organization's finances and achieved a 'progressive union contract.' He said that he would contest the move to fire him, and that he 'remained proud' of what he had accomplished at the Sierra Club. 'It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support,' he said in a statement. 'I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail.' Sierra Club had been in the process of negotiating the terms of Jealous' exit, but talks had broken down, leading to the vote to fire the executive, according to a source with information on the board's discussions who was not authorized to comment. Jealous took over the organization in 2023, after it went through a wrenching internal reckoning over the racist views of its founder, John Muir, more than a century ago and allegations of sexual abuse by a former senior employee. Staff members have said they were initially excited about the hiring of Jealous, who voiced support for the union at the beginning of his tenure. But the relationship began to sour when he announced deep cuts to staff and several organizational overhauls, citing a budget deficit. The union publicly accused Jealous of hiring friends for costly management posts and spending lavishly on executive salaries. Laid-off workers said efforts toward environmental justice for communities of color had been unraveled, with community organizations in California's Inland Empire and other areas facing major congestion and pollution feeling betrayed and abandoned. Last June, unionized workers who were poised to strike sent a letter to the Sierra Club's board of directors informing them they had issued a vote of no confidence in the leadership. The Sierra Club had previously defended hiring moves by Jealous, saying it had 'moved quickly to fill those key roles with seasoned leaders.' Jealous told The Times in an interview last year that deep cuts were necessary and that he had been transparent throughout the process. 'These are the hard decisions that you have to make when you lead a more than century-old institution and you're committed to it having a future as long as its past,' Jealous said then. The organization also faced internal scrutiny over the hiring of a senior manager who was registered as a lobbyist for the cryptocurrency firm at the same time he worked at the Sierra Club, which has been politically critical of the polluting effects of the crypto industry and supports tighter regulations. 'The environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining are well known,' said Dylan Plummer, an elected representative for the Sierra Club's union, which is affiliated with the broader Progressive Workers Union. 'To have hired an active lobbyist for at the highest ranks of our organization is so inappropriate it boggles my mind.' Sierra Club did not respond to a question about the hiring of the lobbyist. Erica Dodt, president of the broader Progressive Workers Union, said in a statement that she hopes Jealous' departure 'will open the door for a stronger relationship between workers and management, and allow the Sierra Club to better focus our efforts on fighting the Trump administration and protecting the environment.' Jealous, who was formerly the chief executive of the NAACP and a 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, is Black and was the first person of color to serve at the helm of the organization. Some of his supporters have suggested racism played a role in his firing, which Sierra Club staff members have disputed. 'There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben's caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,' civil rights leader Al Sharpton said in a statement to Politico. Some of the turmoil roiling the national organization is mirrored in its California advocacy arm. The state plays an outsize role in the club, home to its headquarters and roughly 134,000 members. Sierra Club California, which is one of the most influential environmental voices in Sacramento, has in recent years seen plummeting membership, dropping by roughly 19% between 2019 and 2024, and revolving leadership — with the group cycling through four leaders in a four-year period. Jason Mark, who served as editor-in-chief of the organization's 'Sierra' magazine for about nine years until December, when he was removed from his leadership post, welcomed Jealous' termination. 'It was sad and demoralizing to watch the Sierra Club under Ben's leadership,' Mark said in an interview. 'Still, I'm convinced the Sierra Club is a vital force of nature and truly an irreplaceable pillar in the American environmental movement.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Sean Kingston is sentenced to 3½ years in prison after mom got 5 years for fraud scheme
'Beautiful Girls' hitmaker Sean Kingston will spend three and a half years behind bars for his involvement in a months-long scheme that defrauded luxury goods businesses of more than $1 million. U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz handed down the 35-year-old performer's sentence Friday, months after a Florida jury convicted the singer (born Kisean Paul Anderson) and his mother, Janice Turner, in March on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud each. 'We respect the Court's decision and the judicial process,' Kingston attorney Zeljka Bozanic told The Times in a statement. Bozanic said Kingston's defense team is 'content' the court opted for a shorter prison sentence — the government had requested five years in prison — and said 'most of the restitution in this case was paid back, even before these charges were brought.' 'Sean is taking this as a learning experience and will continue moving forward in a positive direction,' Bozanic added. 'We are actively reviewing all available options, including potential appeals, to ensure his rights are fully protected.' During his court appearance in a South Florida courtroom Friday, Kingston apologized to the judge and said he had learned from his actions. Under house arrest since his conviction, Kingston was taken into custody immediately despite a defense attorney's request that Kingston self-surrender at a later date due to health issues. Prior to the sentencing, Bozanic filed a sentencing memorandum requesting that the court consider a shorter sentence. 'Mr. Anderson accepted responsibility in this case and has made all the positive steps toward learning and growing from this situation,' Bozanic said in the memorandum, which also describes the singer's previous charitable acts. The document notes that Kingston has 'never served prison time before' and that a 'high sentence is not necessary to deter future conduct.' Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida accused Kingston and his mother of swindling more than $480,000 worth of jewelry from one person and, from others, a Cadillac Escalade worth nearly $160,000 and furniture costing upward of $86,500. Prosecutors said Kingston and his mother also stole more than $200,000 from Bank of America and more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank — allegations they initially denied. SWAT officers descended on the 'Take You There' singer's Florida home last May. His mother was arrested during the raid and Kingston was arrested soon after near the Fort Irwin Army base in San Bernardino County. Turner was sentenced to five years in prison last month. Kingston rose to popularity in the early 2000s for 'Beautiful Girls,' which samples Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me.' He is also known for the songs 'Eenie Meenie,' 'Fire Burning' and 'Me Love.' Times editorial library director Cary Schneider and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
