Gérard Lhéritier

In 1990 he founded Aristophil but in March 2015, was arrested by French police in connection with an investigation into a suspected pyramid scheme fraud at the firm.

In 1990, Lhéritier founded the company Aristophil in Nice, to buy historical manuscripts, letters and other documents, and then to sell shares in those items to investors.

[8][9] In 2004, Lhéritier established the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits at 8 Rue de Nesle in Paris, and it moved to 222 Boulevard Saint-Germain in 2010.

They love the touch of it, the sense of communing with a personage who is normally shut up in an encyclopedia" and argues that Lhéritier, "turn[ed] part of our cultural heritage into stocks and shares.

[7] Lhéritier's lawyer, Francis Triboulet, says that he immediately invested €40 million of the prize money into his company Aristophil, which was "proof that it was legitimate".