By Serge Duchêne
Published on •Updated
French hotel group Accor has denied any involvement in the trafficking of adults or children for the purpose of exploitation and said it had already launched an internal investigation and appointed an external firm to look into the allegations.
Accor shares lost more than 8% on the Paris stock exchange on Thursday following the publication of allegations by the American hedge fund Grizzly Research accusing it of human trafficking.
Accor said it “firmly denies any involvement in the alleged systematic exploitation of human or child trafficking.”
“Following the publication of this report, the group is conducting a thorough internal investigation,” it said in a statement.
Grizzly Research claimed in its report that more than 20 Accor hotels had agreed to house Ukrainian children destined to be illegally deported to Russia. Several Russian hotels assured Grizzly’s investigators that they would not disclose confidential information to Accor’s head office in France.
In February 2022, following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Accor suspended the opening of new hotels in Russia. However, the company refused to withdraw completely from the market and continued to operate more than 50 establishments, including the Novotel and Ibis chains, justifying the decision as wanting to “support its employees.”
Since the beginning of February 2026, researchers sent emails requesting bookings to more than 200 Accor hotels. The report alleges that establishments in 20 countries accepted bookings, despite requests containing clear insinuations of child abuse and sexual exploitation.
The Grizzly Research report also accuses Accor hotels in other countries of harbouring prostitutes and alleges a direct link between Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin and Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender_._
Accor says it regularly trains its staff to spot signs of human trafficking and conducts ongoing internal audits.
The group added that it “reserves the right to take legal action against all those involved,” if Grizzly’s allegations are substantiated.
According to estimates, Russia has illegally deported at least 20,000 Ukrainian children to its territory and to that of its ally Belarus for adoption.
The UN considers these transfers as war crimes and crimes against humanity. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s rights ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
Additional sources • AFP/Ukraïnska Pravda