Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica’s Thailand factory hit by staff’s £160m scam
Staff at a spectacles factory in Thailand have scammed Essilor Luxottica out of up to £162million.
The company behind the Ray-Ban and Michael Kors brands discovered a massive fraud at one of its plants but it hopes that what it cannot recover from frozen bank accounts could be recuperated from lawsuits or insurance.
In a statement, the firm said it had ‘put an immediate end to these fraudulent activities’ and was ‘taking all possible actions to seek to recover the misappropriated funds’.
Essilor Luxottica discovered a massive fraud at one of its plants but it hopes that what it cannot recover from frozen bank accounts could be recuperated from lawsuits or insurance
The likely losses of £162million will be recorded in Essilor Luxottica’s 2019 operating results.
The business fired all the workers which it found were involved, and says it is tightening up its security worldwide.
Shares in the French and Italian company fell 2.2 per cent to around €136 after the news was announced.
The business was created in 2018 when Essilor merged with Luxottica. It employed around 150,000 people last year, with revenues reaching £138billion.