Belgian prosecutors said yesterday they have closed an investigation into a €2.9 billion capital increase in a Belgian company owned by billionaire and chief executive of LVMH Bernard Arnault.

Arnault has accepted a deal to end the case opened in 2012 against Pilinvest, a holding company in Belgium, “without any prejudicial admission of guilt on his part”, prosecutors said, without offering any further details.

One of France’s richest men, the luxury goods tycoon caused controversy in 2012 by requesting Belgian nationality as France prepared to introduce a 75 per cent supertax.

Arnault later withdrew the request and said his frustrated efforts to acquire Belgian nationality were motivated not by tax concerns but a desire to tie up legal ownership issues so that his children would not fight over the riches he would one day leave to them.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.