Sick of Twitter Stalking, World's 2nd-Richest Man Dumps Private Jet

Bernard Arnault was tired of being tracked by Twitter accounts
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2022 7:16 AM CDT
Exec Tired of Being Tracked on Twitter Sells Private Jet
CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault presents the group's 2019 results during a press conference, in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020.   (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

File under "Problems of the 1%": LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault, one of the world's richest men, is now renting private jets instead of using a company jet because he is fed up with having his movements tracked by Twitter accounts. "The group had a plane and we sold it," Arnault told LVMH-owned radio station Radio Classique on Monday, per Bloomberg. "The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes." Twitter accounts including one called "Bernard's Plane" used transponder signals and other information to track wealthy's people use of private jets, which French lawmakers are considering taxing, Gizmodo reports.

The accounts criticized company execs for adding emissions to the atmosphere with countless flights on private jets, some of them over very short distances. Arnault, whose company owns luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, is the second-richest person in the world, with a fortune of almost $133 billion putting him just ahead of Jeff Bezos, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. His son, Antoine Arnault, told the radio show Monday that there was another reason for not having a company plane that can be easily tracked. "It’s not very good that our competitors can know where we are at any moment," he said. "That can give ideas, it can also give leads, clues."

(More Bernard Arnault stories.)

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