Dmitri Rybolovlev has not been having much success in Monaco courts in recent months, notably with the dismissal of his case against art dealer Yves Bouvier, and the trend continued last week with the failure of a case brought by his Rigmora company against a former employee.

Rigmora had accused its former travel coordinator of breach of trust. The 41 year-old Frenchwoman was said to have diverted means of payment for personal ends. The case centred on just over 4,000 air miles that she had used for her own benefit. She told the court that she had kept full records of her trips and had been waiting for the accounting department to ask to be reimbursed. She said it was normal practice for travel agents to use air miles themselves, rather than pass them on to clients, according to a report in local French-language daily Monaco Matin.

The defendant claimed in court that over her four and a half years with the company she had been expected to be available 24 hours a day seven days a week. She suffered burn-out and was in hospital when she was fired, she told the court.

“I had asked for help from one more person but was told it would be too expensive. I was getting 4,500 euros a month, but in reality it was 10 euros an hour. What killed me was that I was given to manage, in addition to the trips of company and family employees, those of AS Monaco, players and staff. I couldn’t say no. It was the year ASM moved up to Ligue 1. I also had to take care of traveling in the Champions League.”

The defendant is now asking for compensation from the labour court for unpaid hours amounting to 6,000 overtime hours, amounting in total to 377,000 euros.

PHOTO: Dmitri Rybolovlev, majority owner of AS Monaco. Total wealth $6.6 billion