By Helen Reid
PARIS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - 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. He was a financial predator," Dumas said on a call with journalists on Thursday. "He already had a hateful reputation."
Files released
by the U.S. Department of Justice show Epstein emailed Dumas' assistant multiple times in 2013 and 2014 asking for meetings with him, as well as contacting the luxury brand to request they design the interior of his private jet. Hermes refused.
Dumas said he only met Epstein once, in March 2013, during an event at an Hermès atelier. Epstein had not been on the list of attendees but joined a group with movie director Woody Allen and his wife, he added.
"After that, he tried three times to meet with me and I refused every time," Dumas said. "I can't tell you exactly what we knew about him or not, because I can't remember 13 years ago, but he already had a loathsome reputation."
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl. He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
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.
The emails show Elodie Brisebarre, Dumas' assistant, politely refusing Epstein's invitations to meet him in November 2013 and January 2014, citing a "prior engagement" and "a very tight agenda".
One email sent from Epstein to a redacted email address reads - "Track down Axel Dumas in hermes headquarters paris".
(Reporting by Helen Reid and Tassilo Hummel; editing by Richard Lough)
