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Diane Halfin von Fürstenberg

Photo: Ed Kavishe
  • Belgian and American nationality or passport

Diane Halfin von Fürstenberg

Fashion designer

Von Fürstenberg is an iconic American fashion designer who is best known for her wrap dresses, which were the height of fashion in the 1970s and are still popular today. She got her last name from her first husband, a German prince, and, although she has remarried, she has continued using his name. In 1974 she presented her first wrap dress and due to its success was featured on the cover of Newsweek two years later. Also in 1974, she launched her line of cosmetics and her first fragrance. In 1985, she created a publishing house in Paris. Since 2004, she has initiated lines of various products including jewelry, beachwear, a fragrance and children’s clothing. She is director of a family foundation and has donated money to a variety of causes.

File details

Diane Von Fürstenberg's was linked to four HSBC client accounts: two numbered that were opened in 1988 and later closed in 1996 and 2002. There was another account under the name “Thunderbird Investments Ltd,” in which she showed up as beneficial owner, opened in 1994 and closed in 2002 and one account for “Licom Ltd,” where at one point she was listed as “Attorney B.” Two family members were also linked to the client account. Her mother was listed as beneficial owner of the account and then stricken. “Licom Ltd” listed seven bank accounts that together held as much as $6,268,217 in 2006/2007.

Comment

A spokeswoman told ICIJ that von Fürstenberg inherited Thunderbird Investments Ltd. from her parents, who were not American tax residents, and that she never received anything from Licom Ltd. Von Fürstenberg “made all necessary US tax filings and insisted that the assets be domesticated to the United States more than 10 years ago.”