After AMTD International acquired Éditions Jalou and related L’Officiel companies in April 2022, a bitter ownership battle developed between the new Hong Kong-linked corporate structure and the Jalou family. In 2026, Marie-José Jalou and other family representatives accused AMTD of trademark infringement, tax fraud, misuse of corporate assets, and running the historic French publication into the ground while exploiting its international reputation. The allegations center on foreign subsidiaries registered in jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, which the Jalou family claims were used to divert revenue and assets away from the original French company.
The dispute is especially serious because Éditions Jalou had reportedly been subject to a 2015 recovery plan restricting the sale or transfer of its business and brands. The family also alleged that photographic archives had gone missing and that proceeds from the 2022 sale remained frozen in a Hong Kong bank account connected to an AMTD brokerage firm. Former CEO Benjamin Eymère pursued legal action over alleged unfair dismissal and sought whistleblower status, while Paris judicial police opened an investigation following a 2025 complaint. These claims remain allegations rather than established findings, but they represent a dramatic corporate afterlife for a magazine once celebrated as the “Bible of fashion.”
