The estate of fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who died at the end of December 2020, is the subject of an investigation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned on Thursday August 3 from a judicial source. The procedure was opened after a complaint by the great-nieces Cardin filed in March for abuse of weakness, aggravated breach of trust, fraud, forgery and use of forgery, said this source, confirming information from Challenges.

According to the economic magazine, the great-nieces, supported by most of the Cardin descendants, blame Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, the couturier’s great-nephew, for blocking the sale of the group. The latter became its managing director in October 2018 and then president in November 2020, a month and a half before the death of Pierre Cardin on December 29, 2020 at the age of 98.

Pierre Cardin, who had no children, left a rich heritage: a holding company and subsidiaries, licenses, brands, as well as real estate, particularly in Paris and in the Vaucluse. The group’s assets are estimated at between 750 and 800 million euros depending on the takeover proposals, Jean-Louis Rivière, the grandnieces’ lawyer, told AFP.

In one of the complaints, the grand-nieces dispute the conditions under which Mr. Basilicati-Cardin took over as head of the holding company. Their doubts relate to the validity of the deed of transfer of shares that their grandmother Giovanna Cardin would have signed, a few days before her death in March 2000 at the age of 97. “Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin is in a situation of self-designation. For exclusively personal reasons, he wants to get rid of the heirs, ”denounces their lawyer.

They also contest the validity of a will signed by Pierre Cardin in November 2016 produced by Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin and designating him as sole heir. It is “an attempt to spoliate an inheritance” through “doubtful or even possibly fraudulent maneuvers”, considers Mr. Rivière.

“False Allegations”

Mr. Basilicati-Cardin found this document in 2022 in the Parisian building of his great-uncle. A “timely” discovery the day after a takeover offer from the group with which “all the heirs, representing 85%, agreed”, underlines Me Rivière. This “testament should have been found during the inventory” carried out after the couturier’s death, “but at least it allowed me to know my family”, mocks in return Mr. Basilicati-Cardin. Civil proceedings are in progress, in particular on the validity of this will.

Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin replied to the mis en cause on June 21 with a complaint with civil action for defamation. “Certain members of the family, who do not accept that Pierre Cardin has appointed me to succeed him, multiply the procedures and try to mobilize the press, with false allegations whose sole purpose is to harm me and harm the group,” he said.

Pierre Cardin “expressed during his lifetime his desire that I succeed him and in ten years he made a certain number of consequent acts until the will”, defends Mr. Basilicati-Cardin. “My goal is to relaunch the brand, not to sell it, it was my uncle’s will,” he adds, recalling having worked for several years alongside the couturier.