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Once hailed as a financial lifeline for a struggling publishing house, the 2022 acquisition of Éditions Jalou by Chinese financial group AMTD is now at the centre of a legal and criminal investigation that could threaten the future of one of fashion’s luxury titles.

French authorities have confirmed that an investigation into suspected large-scale fraud is underway following a complaint lodged by the Jalou family, founders of the publishing house behind L’Officiel. The complaint was formally filed on 5 March 2025 and the case has been assigned to the financial investigations unit of the Paris judicial police. What began as a corporate rescue has since evolved into a multi-jurisdictional dispute spanning Europe, Asia and offshore financial centres.

At the heart of the legal action is the allegation that AMTD Group — alongside its subsidiaries including AMTD Digital and The Generation Essentials Group — prioritised financial engineering over responsible stewardship. The Jalou family is seeking at least EUR 40 million in damages to creditors and accuses the group of stripping assets from the century-old fashion institution while it remained under court supervision.

From Rescue to Receivership Fallout

Founded in 1921, Éditions Jalou was long regarded as a cornerstone of French fashion publishing, overseeing titles such as “L’Officiel de la mode”, “Jalouse” and “L’Optimum”. The group also previously owned “The Art Newspaper” — another internationally influential cultural title — before both assets were sold to AMTD. Its decline began in the mid-2010s following a costly legal dispute in Russia, culminating in the company being placed into receivership in 2022.

AMTD — a Hong Kong-based conglomerate with a diverse portfolio spanning across digital solutions, media, entertainment and hospitality — presented itself as something of a “white knight” capable of stabilising the business. The acquisition was accompanied by high-profile gestures designed to signal revival, including a special edition unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos and a fashion show staged at the New York Stock Exchange. However behind the spectacle, the relationship between buyer and seller was already fraying. According to legal filings reviewed by French authorities, the Jalou family alleges that the takeover masked a “predatory” operation aimed at hollowing out the French entity rather than rebuilding it.

Allegations of Fraud, Trademark Abuse and Missing Assets

The complaint accuses AMTD of counterfeiting, tax fraud, trademark infringement and misuse of company assets. Central to the case are claims that a series of opaque financial structures spanning Paris, New York, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands were used to divert value away from Éditions Jalou.

One key allegation concerns the unlawful registration of the “L’Officiel” trademark in around 40 countries through a foreign subsidiary based in the British Virgin Islands, despite the recovery plan explicitly prohibiting any transfer or disposal of the brand. The family further alleges that licensing agreements were terminated and reassigned to overseas entities, depriving the French publisher of revenue while expanding AMTD’s control abroad.

Among the most alarming accusations is the disappearance of L’Officiel’s photographic archives, a unique visual record documenting more than a century of French fashion and culture. The family maintains that the whereabouts of these archives remain unknown. The Jalou family also claims that proceeds from the sale of the business were never fully paid. They allege that AMTD failed to settle the full purchase price for both “L’Officiel” and “The Art Newspaper,” while portions of the funds that were due remain frozen within AMTD-controlled accounts.

At the same time, they argue that AMTD exploited the L’Officiel brand across international markets — notably in Asia and the Middle East where the magazine maintains a wide publishing footprint — without revenue flowing back to the French entity. International licensees were reportedly instructed to bypass Éditions Jalou altogether and deal directly with the new owners, effectively severing the original company from its most valuable asset.

Tax Claims and Regulatory Scrutiny

Another pillar of the case concerns alleged tax evasion. The Jalou family accuses AMTD of seizing control of the L’Officiel brand — which they value at nearly EUR 85 million — as part of a scheme designed to avoid French tax obligations. They argue that these actions directly contravened the court-approved recovery plan established when the company entered receivership. That plan — which runs until 2028 — explicitly restricts the transfer or sale of assets and trademarks in order to protect employees, suppliers, URSSAF and the French state.

According to the complaint, AMTD committed “serious and repeated violations” of these conditions, undermining the very framework that allowed the acquisition to proceed. Marie-José Jalou — the magazine’s former editor-in-chief and one of its most prominent figures — has described the situation as devastating. “L’Officiel was the bible of fashion,” she said. “It cannot be treated as a speculative asset. I will never give up.”

The dispute has also expanded beyond France. Despite ongoing legal proceedings, AMTD has listed both “L’Officiel” and “The Art Newspaper” as media assets on the London and New York stock exchanges, a move that has further inflamed tensions between the parties. The group’s founder — Chinese financier Calvin Choi — is now directly named in several of the disputes.

The case unfolds against a broader backdrop of scrutiny surrounding AMTD, which has faced separate regulatory issues and legal proceedings involving the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. For the Jalou family’s legal team, the issue extends beyond a commercial disagreement. “L’Officiel is a century-old French fashion institution,” their lawyers, Céline Bekerman and Antoine Cadeo, said. “Its heritage must be preserved and cannot be sacrificed for predatory practices.”

As investigators work through a web of cross-border transactions, disputed trademark registrations and unpaid proceeds, the future of “L’Officiel” remains uncertain. What began as a rescue operation has evolved into a cautionary tale about the risks facing heritage media brands in an era of global capital. Regardless of the outcome, the case underscores a broader tension in a globalised market, where fashion and cultural institutions risk being subordinated to financial engineering rather than protected as heritage assets.

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AMTD Pushes Back with Defamation Lawsuit

In January 2026, AMTD Group and its subsidiaries announced that they had launched legal proceedings against Benjamin Eymere — a member of the Jalou family and former employee of an AMTD subsidiary, alleging malicious falsehood, defamation and misconduct. The group claims Eymere was dismissed for mismanagement, that subsequent appeals in the Paris courts were dismissed and that his recent actions prompted AMTD to involve law enforcement. AMTD also rejected what it described as inaccuracies circulating in press and social media, stating that its 2022 acquisition of L’Officiel was fully completed with 100 percent of the purchase price paid, that the controlling seller was investment group GEM rather than the Jalou family and that L’Officiel has not incurred new debt since the takeover. The company said it would continue to pursue legal action to defend its reputation, positioning itself as a lawful owner acting to counter allegations made by the magazine’s founding family.

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In a nation where fortunes are typically forged in technology, property or finance, China’s richest man (according to Forbes) has built his empire on something far more elemental. At 71, Zhong Shanshan controls a fortune estimated at USD 74 billion through bottled water. Founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, Zhong is an unlikely billionaire in an age of hypervisibility beating out founder of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance Zhang Yiming and tech leaders like Ma Huateng of Tencent and Lei Jun of Xiaomi. He avoids interviews, shuns industry events and has no interest in cultivating a public persona. Within Chinese business circles, he is known as the “Lone Wolf”, a moniker that reflects both his solitary working style. Today, Zhong Shanshan is China’s richest individual and among the world’s top 25, but his path to the top was far from privileged.

From Hardship to Discipline

Zhong’s journey from manual labourer to the wealthiest individual in China offers an example of sucessful contrarian thinking and playing the long game of brand building. Born in Hangzhou in 1954, Zhong’s early life was shaped by upheaval. During the Cultural Revolution his family was sent to the Chinese countryside resulting in his formal education being cut short. He left school after sixth grade and spent years working as a bricklayer and construction labourer — experiences that instilled the discipline and self-reliance that would later define his leadership style.

In the late 1970s, as China reopened educational pathways, Zhong enrolled in adult studies at Zhejiang Radio and Television University after repeatedly failing traditional entrance exams. He later joined Zhejiang Daily as a reporter, travelling across more than 80 counties and interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs. The role sharpened his understanding of markets, risk and human behaviour long before he became a businessman himself.

His early ventures were modest and often unsuccessful. He traded mushrooms and prawns, experimented with small-scale commerce and briefly worked as a sales agent for beverage giant Wahaha. None of these efforts lasted, but each taught him something about distribution, pricing and competition.

His first real success came in 1993 with the founding of Yangshengtang, a health supplement company. Three years later, at the age of 42, Zhong would made the decision that would define his legacy.

Reframing Water as a Brand, Not a Commodity

When Zhong launched Nongfu Spring in 1996, China’s bottled water market was dominated by purified water. Zhong rejected that model entirely. Instead, he positioned Nongfu Spring as natural mineral water sourced from specific locations such as Qiandao Lake, emphasising origin and composition over convenience.

In 1999 Nongfu Spring announced it would stop selling purified water altogether, arguing that the process stripped water of beneficial minerals. The decision sparked national debate and reframed bottled water as a health choice rather than a utility. It was marketing by provocation and it worked.

The slogan “Nongfu Spring is a little sweet” became one of the most recognisable in China, tying the brand to purity and pleasure. For Zhong, advertising was never separate from the product itself. As he has said, the story must be embedded in the product’s DNA long before it reaches the shelf. That philosophy has guided his resistance to short-term tactics such as livestream selling and aggressive discounting. Zhong has consistently argued that hype eroded trust and that once lost trust could not be repurchased.

In 2024, when online users accused Nongfu Spring of using packaging that echoed Japanese cultural motifs, Zhong personally stepped in to defend the brand. The company clarified that the designs drew on Chinese temple architecture, a response that helped contain the backlash and reinforced Zhong’s hands-on approach to reputation management.

The ‘Anti-Tech’ Leadership Model

Zhong’s management style runs counter to much of modern corporate culture. He avoids executive circles and industry alliances, preferring isolation to consensus. “I am a lone wolf,” he has said. “I don’t care what my peers are doing or thinking.”

Zhong’s leadership is guided by a small set of unwavering principles. He believes reputation carries more weight than assets, that intuition should lead and data should follow and that products lose their power when treated as mere commodities. For him, marketing works best through decisive cultural moments, not constant amplification, while true innovation can only flourish when shielded from immediate commercial pressure.

Control is central to this worldview. Zhong owns nearly 84 percent of Nongfu Spring’s Hong Kong-listed shares, allowing him to make long-term decisions without shareholder interference. That autonomy has enabled him to navigate regulatory pressure, social media storms and fierce competition without compromising his principles.

Reputation As The Core Asset

While Nongfu Spring is his most visible asset, Zhong’s empire rests on two pillars: water and health. He is also the controlling shareholder of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, a vaccine manufacturer that developed China’s first domestically produced second-generation HPV vaccine. The listings of Wantai (Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.) in April 2020 and Nongfu Spring later that year propelled Zhong to the top of China’s wealth rankings. Together, the businesses reflect his focus on essential goods that sit at the intersection of public health and daily life.

Nongfu Spring continues to dominate China’s packaged drinking water market, with water accounting for roughly 37 percent of total revenue. The company has also expanded successfully into tea, juice and functional drinks, with brands such as Nongfu Orchard, Tea Pi and C100. Each launch follows the same pattern: product differentiation supported by narrative-led marketing.

Despite facing legal disputes, media scrutiny and growing competition, Zhong has remained consistent. His scent challenges the assumption that modern wealth must be built on speed and scale, rather his success partially lies in emphasis on origin, trust and an almost stubborn belief in doing things his own way.

Nongfu Spring was built by identifying a basic human need and elevating it through storytelling and science and patience, proving that in a saturated market, endurance can be just as powerful as disruption.

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