Police have charged three men in connection with a robbery at the luxury Paris boutique of the Harry Winston group, which saw thieves make off with jewellery worth €7 million ($7.5 million).
Armed robbers used a motorbike as a battering ram during the robbery in May.
The three are being held in custody in connection with the crime.
They were arrested last week at an apartment in a wealthy Paris suburb where much of the loot was reportedly discovered.
Two men entered the boutique and broke nine windows using a hatchet during the attack on May 18, while a third waited outside with a Kalashnikov machinegun.
As they sped away, they pointed the firearm “in the direction of police officers, who had to put an end to their pursuit”, prosecutors said.
They stole 23 pieces of jewellery with a resale value of about €340,000 each.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, they were apprehended after a man living in Paris, a French-Israeli citizen, sought to sell on the jewellery.
That led police to an apartment in a wealthy suburb of the capital, where they discovered 17 pieces of jewellery worth about €5.5 million. The jewellery appeared unaltered, apart from one ring that had some stones removed.
The three men were placed in pretrial detention on Monday, on charges of “concealment of theft by an organised gang” and “criminal conspiracy”, said the newspaper.
It is not the first time the boutique has been targeted.
In 2015, eight people were convicted in connection with a 2008 robbery, in which three gunmen fled with a loot worth $92 million from the same store.
After opening his eponymous jewellery house in New York in 1932, the late Harry Winston revolutionised modern jewellery design. He was perhaps best known for donating the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The American luxury jewellery brand has forged a reputation for offering some of the finest white and coloured diamonds money can buy.
Customers include Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan, who proposed to Rajwa Al Saif with a Harry Winston pear-cut diamond ring.
The largest Harry Winston engagement ring made was for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Weighing 40.42 carats, it was presented by the Greek-Argentine businessman Aristotle Onassis, and was one of 18 stones cut from the 601-carat Lesotho III diamond.
Two years after her death, it was sold at auction in 1996 for $2.6 million, while today it is valued closer to $20 million.
In June, thieves rammed a Chanel boutique in Paris, driving an SUV through the front window, before making off with a haul reportedly worth between €6 million and €10 million.
On the same day in Rome a gang of thieves broke into the Bulgari store on Via Condotti, making off with jewellery and watches estimated to be worth €500,000.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
