Bernard Arnault, the third richest man in the world, has often been linked to a possible acquisition of Milan in recent years. However, the buzz may have been fueled fraudulently by a broker at the expense of the tycoon and the club. The local district attorney’s office is looking into the matter, La Repubblica reports.
In July of 2018, the French billionaire was considered close to buy the club. Rumors about the future stadium, built next to a giant mall to push the LVMH brands, circulated with insistence, and the fashion industry was ablaze. The notion was put to bed only in January of 2020 in an annual report of his conglomerate.
In the summer of 2019, a former bank employee from Brescia rode the wave and, partly thanks to his role in a major real estate project in Ticino, credited himself as Arnault’s envoy to buy the Rossoneri. He began negotiating with the Elliott fund, which had taken control of the team due to the insolvency of Chinese entrepreneur Yonghong Li.
The man assembled a top-flight group that included some seasoned Italian professionals to serve as the future management. They started hashing out the details of the operation and transfer market plans. The broker made up fake phone calls with Arnault and emails from the banks supposed to finance the project to convince the executives that had grown skeptical as time passed by.
Despite the reiterated promises, the shadow front office never met the French tycoon in person, and most eventually realized it was a sham. They got ahold of Antonio Belloni, the CEO of LVMH, near the end of the summer, and he confirmed that he did not know anybody involved in the plan.