Hermes CEO Axel Dumas said he resisted multiple attempts by Jeffrey Epstein to meet with him, saying he believed he was a target of the financier who was a "financial predator" and approached the company in the middle of a takeover battle. "I think we were a target, I was a young CEO and we were in the middle of the LVMH affair. "After that, he tried three times to meet with me and I refused every time," Dumas said. Emails released in the files show Epstein tried to organise a meeting with Dumas and Ariane de Rothschild, head of the family-owned Edmond de Rothschild private bank in January 2014. One email sent from Epstein to a redacted email address reads - "Track down Axel Dumas in hermes headquarters paris".

Source: The Telegraph February 12, 2026 09:03 UTC