Reported by Claire Moses and Ephrat Livni

(Excerpt featured below. To read full report, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/world/europe/louis-vuitton-netherlands-money-laundering.html)

She paid in cash and shopped often. She never spent beyond a set amount, but over about 18 months, the authorities say, this single customer bought millions of euros’ worth of bags and other luxury goods from Louis Vuitton shops in the Netherlands.

Now, Dutch prosecutors are investigating Louis Vuitton Netherlands, a subsidiary of the French luxury brand, in connection with a case against the customer, a Chinese woman who is accused of laundering millions of euros in an international scheme.

Law enforcement officials in the Netherlands say that the suspicious purchasing patterns should have alerted the Louis Vuitton shops to wrongdoing and are questioning whether the company should have raised alarms. It is being investigated for potentially violating money-laundering regulations. 

The case shines a light on the role of luxury goods in financial crime, as well as the reputational risk for brands whose high-end clientele may include people trying to disguise the origins of funds. While fancy boutiques don’t have the same obligations to report suspicious financial activity as banks, they do have some legal responsibilities to alert the authorities to some types of transactions.

Prosecutors accuse the woman at the center of the case — who has been identified publicly only as Bei W., in accordance with Dutch law — of laundering nearly 3 million euros ($3.5 million) from September 2021 to February 2023. Two other defendants who are said to have helped her are also facing charges.

At a preliminary hearing this month, prosecutors said that Bei W. received large sums of illicit money generated through criminal activity from an individual who has already been convicted in connection with the scheme. She is said to have spent the cash in several Louis Vuitton stores in the Netherlands, using various names and email accounts. The goods were then sent to Hong Kong and China, prosecutors contend.

The shopper always spent just under the €10,000 threshold that would trigger cash transaction reporting obligations, a modus operandi that should have raised eyebrows at Louis Vuitton shops, investigators say. She received help from another suspect in the case who worked at Louis Vuitton, and who alerted her when new items arrived that fell within the price range their scheme relied upon, investigators say.