The buyer was LVMH, the group behind Louis Vuitton, run by Bernard Arnault. It had been building a secret stake in Hermès, and French regulators later fined it for the hidden buying.
A 2012 French regulatory report found that about 4.8 million Hermès shares had moved out of Puech's account. They went to a company called Dilico, then to the bank Société Générale, as part of a 2008 deal with LVMH.
An audit found they were sold for about €86 each. Hermès shares later traded above €2,000. At that price, 4.8 million shares would be worth more than €9 billion.
Puech insists he never agreed to sell them.