Dunhill Heir's Associate Under French Investigation for Alleged £12 Billion Fraud

French authorities have launched an investigation into a purported £12 billion fraud, with Vanja Megevand, a woman described by Piers Dunhill as his fiancée, now a person of interest. This probe is on a scale entirely different from previous entanglements faced by Dunhill, 32.

In the past two years, Dunhill has reportedly been inadvertently involved with two entrepreneurs who later faced scrutiny. Last year, Dunhill was seen with jeweller Vashi Dominguez shortly before Dominguez's company faced a winding-up order, resulting in investor losses of £170 million. Earlier in 2024, Dunhill attended investor roadshows with Renato Brioni, previously known as Renato Libric, who had received a three-year prison sentence for wire fraud in the U.S. in 2018 and was ordered to pay over $1.5 million in compensation.

The current investigation, according to French prosecutors, involves three Swiss lawyers on preliminary charges of allegedly perpetrating an organized fraud. Megevand is one of these individuals. The allegations claim that every penny of the missing £12 billion was fraudulently siphoned from a single individual, Nicolas Puech, a descendant of the founder of Hermes.

Megevand has been thanked on social media for contributing to events hosted by Dunhill's firm, Dunhill Ventures, in the Hamptons, USA, in 2024. She also posted a personal thank you to Dunhill after a financial networking event in London. Sources indicate that their professional relationship evolved into a romantic one, with Dunhill referring to Megevand as his fiancée.

Dunhill has declined to comment. A lawyer for Megevand stated that she "strongly rejects the allegations."