How Kiabi was robbed of 100 million euros ? The trail of the rogue treasurer

Kiabi's former sister was é arrested by the judicial police, suspected of being behind bars. the origin of this fraud.

It's a case worthy of the best thief movies. After several weeks of searching, the judicial police arrested the former treasurer of Kiabi at Figari airport (South Corsica), as she was leaving a private jet on August 12. It must be said that the suspect was not very discreet, she regularly displayed her luxurious life on social networks and the equivalent of 500,000 euros of luxury jewelry and clothing were found in her luggage.

According to information revealed by franceinfo, the thirty-nine-year-old woman used the “rebound accounts” method to steal 100 million euros from her employer. While she was the brand's treasurer, she advised Kiabi to invest 100 million euros in a savings account. abroad in order to quickly obtain high interest rates. The account is opened in July 2023, but a year later, when Kiabi wants to recover this investment, the money has disappeared. The suspect, for her part, left the company to move to Miami and join a group specializing in luxury goods.

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A complaint quickly filed

As soon as the “low-cost” clothing brand became aware of the scam, a complaint was filed and an investigation was opened by the central office for serious financial crime (OCRGDF). According to initial information, the former treasurer opened the bank account by assuming the identity of of a senior executive of the company. She was also sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to two years in prison, suspended, for fraud involving nearly €800,000 from another company, just a few weeks before transferring the €100 million. A sentence that Kiabi was not aware of.

It was by following her adventures on social networks, first at Mykonos (Greece) and then in Corsica, that investigators found the suspect's trail. She was arrested, placed in police custody, then brought back to Paris where an investigating judge placed her under investigation for “fraud and money laundering in an organized gang”, the investigators not believing that she could have acted alone. She was then placed in pre-trial detention while the investigation continues and the astronomical sum is recovered.

Concerning Kiabi's economic situation, the brand wants to be reassuring. Although the stolen sum represents approximately 4% of its turnover (2.2 billion euros in 2023), the brand assures that it is doing everything possible to “obtain recovery of the fraud”, while specifying that this “in no way calls into question its solidity financial and has no impact on maintaining its annual trajectory.”