Bettencourt heiress case: judges prepare to bring L'Oreal tale to denouement
Celebrity photographer accused during five weeks of courtroom drama of exploiting Liliane Bettencourt’s frail mental state to get gifts
After five weeks of courtroom drama, judges will retire on Thursday to consider the story of the richest woman in France, Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the world’s largest cosmetics firm, and the charges against an eccentric celebrity photographer and dandy whom she saw has her best friend, now accused of exploiting her frail mental state to get hundreds of millions of euros in gifts from her.
Also in the dock are nine other allegedly greedy hangers-on, including Bettencourt’s financial manager, whose trail of presents and brown envelopes are claimed to lead to the top of French politics and have raised issues of the very workings of the French state.
The family soap opera of the woman behind the L’Oreal empire that has unfurled in a courtroom in Bordeaux – mixing luxury, wealth and mental frailty in an investigation which could have long-term ramifications on politics and privacy issues – has gripped the public.
Bettencourt, now 92, had long been seen as the nation’s poor little rich girl. The only child of the French chemist who invented one of the first synthetic hair dyes and created L’Oreal, she lost her mother when she was five, began as an apprentice at the company at 15 and grew up in the spotlight. She was no stranger to controversy, not least when her father and her husband, the politician Andre Bettencourt, were accused of being Nazi collaborators during the second world war; L’Oreal later addressed charges of giving jobs to Nazi collaborators after the war by making sweeping boardroom changes.
In her peaceful widowhood at her mansion on the edge of Paris called The White House, a morose Bettencourt – estimated to be worth €33bn (£24bn), by Forbes magazine – was alleged to have found a new best friend in the outrageous and eccentric François-Marie Banier, a society photographer 25 years her junior. She showered him with so many gifts that even his own lawyer admitted in court that he had been “drowning in gold” and briefly made him her sole heir.
Alarmed, Bettencourt’s only daughter brought a legal case accusing Banier of manipulating her frailty. The court heard how Bettencourt has been suffering from increasing dementia and by 2011 was unable to tell what year it was.
Banier, now 67, who first met Bettencourt when he photographed her for a magazine, presented himself in court as a rich and well-connected celebrity photographer, a charming eccentric who did not need the money. He was said to be the only person who really made Bettencourt laugh, sharing a passion for culture.
But certain domestic staff at the mansion described him otherwise. He would, they said, lie on her bed with his shoes on, tuck requests for money in her bra, call in the middle of the night and urinate in her flowerbeds. He would address Bettencourt – a woman so obsessed with her immaculate looks and slim figure that she lived surrounded by photos of her glamorous younger self — as “my fatty”. Bettencourt’s former secretary described him as a “guru”. Bettencourt’s daughter told the court he was a “conman”, bent on shattering her relationship with her mother, saying he “divided and conquered” the household to better control her.
The court heard how from 2006 to 2010, Banier received gifts from Bettencourt worth €414m, including life-insurance policies, paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian, manuscripts and cash. In court Banier conceded that just hearing the figures sparked “an enormous vertigo”. But he said Bettencourt chose to bestow the gifts, it “gave her immense pleasure to do it” and she had been of sound mind. He said if he tried to turn down gifts, she got angry. Most of the value of the gifts was paid back before the court case.
Banier’s lawyers said he was happy to be showered with gold, but that didn’t make it “an abusive act”.
But the state prosecutor – accusing him of robbing Bettencourt of her money “but mostly of her family life, the love and support of those close to her” – requested judges give him the maximum penalty of three years in prison and a €375,000 fine.
The amount of cash sloshing around the Bettencourt household and regularly dished out as gifts to several people was pored over in court. “When you’re called Bettencourt, you don’t help people out with a box of chocolates,” said one witness.
But the trial was more than just a family feud. Among the other accused is Eric Woerth , a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government and campaign treasurer for his 2007 presidential campaign. He is alleged to have taken an envelope of cash via his friend and fellow accused Patrice de Maistre, who managed Bettencourt’s fortune.
Bettencourt’s former accountant told the investigation she was asked by de Maistre in early 2007 to take out €150,000 cash for Woerth, adding, “It’s for Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign.” These allegations tarnished Sarkozy, who after being voted out as president was placed under formal investigation for illegal campaign financing and taking advantage of Bettencourt.
Those charges against Sarkozy were dropped in October 2013 due to lack of evidence. Woerth, who told the court “I did not receive cash from de Maistre to finance this campaign or anything else” is likely to be acquitted over lack of evidence.
Another accused, Alain Thurin, 64, a former nurse for the frail L’Oreal heiress, tried to hang himself in the woods near his house just before the start of his trial and is currently in a coma.
All the accused deny the charges. The judges are expected to return verdicts before the summer. The Bordeaux court will now go on to hear several other spin-off cases from the initial Bettencourt investigation – including a trial for influence-peddling in Bettencourt’s entourage, breech of privacy relating to secret tapes made by Bettencourt’s butler, and the case of an investigating magistrate accused of leaking inquiry details to the media.
Also in the dock are nine other allegedly greedy hangers-on, including Bettencourt’s financial manager, whose trail of presents and brown envelopes are claimed to lead to the top of French politics and have raised issues of the very workings of the French state.
The family soap opera of the woman behind the L’Oreal empire that has unfurled in a courtroom in Bordeaux – mixing luxury, wealth and mental frailty in an investigation which could have long-term ramifications on politics and privacy issues – has gripped the public.
Bettencourt, now 92, had long been seen as the nation’s poor little rich girl. The only child of the French chemist who invented one of the first synthetic hair dyes and created L’Oreal, she lost her mother when she was five, began as an apprentice at the company at 15 and grew up in the spotlight. She was no stranger to controversy, not least when her father and her husband, the politician Andre Bettencourt, were accused of being Nazi collaborators during the second world war; L’Oreal later addressed charges of giving jobs to Nazi collaborators after the war by making sweeping boardroom changes.
In her peaceful widowhood at her mansion on the edge of Paris called The White House, a morose Bettencourt – estimated to be worth €33bn (£24bn), by Forbes magazine – was alleged to have found a new best friend in the outrageous and eccentric François-Marie Banier, a society photographer 25 years her junior. She showered him with so many gifts that even his own lawyer admitted in court that he had been “drowning in gold” and briefly made him her sole heir.
Alarmed, Bettencourt’s only daughter brought a legal case accusing Banier of manipulating her frailty. The court heard how Bettencourt has been suffering from increasing dementia and by 2011 was unable to tell what year it was.
Banier, now 67, who first met Bettencourt when he photographed her for a magazine, presented himself in court as a rich and well-connected celebrity photographer, a charming eccentric who did not need the money. He was said to be the only person who really made Bettencourt laugh, sharing a passion for culture.
But certain domestic staff at the mansion described him otherwise. He would, they said, lie on her bed with his shoes on, tuck requests for money in her bra, call in the middle of the night and urinate in her flowerbeds. He would address Bettencourt – a woman so obsessed with her immaculate looks and slim figure that she lived surrounded by photos of her glamorous younger self — as “my fatty”. Bettencourt’s former secretary described him as a “guru”. Bettencourt’s daughter told the court he was a “conman”, bent on shattering her relationship with her mother, saying he “divided and conquered” the household to better control her.
The court heard how from 2006 to 2010, Banier received gifts from Bettencourt worth €414m, including life-insurance policies, paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian, manuscripts and cash. In court Banier conceded that just hearing the figures sparked “an enormous vertigo”. But he said Bettencourt chose to bestow the gifts, it “gave her immense pleasure to do it” and she had been of sound mind. He said if he tried to turn down gifts, she got angry. Most of the value of the gifts was paid back before the court case.
Banier’s lawyers said he was happy to be showered with gold, but that didn’t make it “an abusive act”.
But the state prosecutor – accusing him of robbing Bettencourt of her money “but mostly of her family life, the love and support of those close to her” – requested judges give him the maximum penalty of three years in prison and a €375,000 fine.
The amount of cash sloshing around the Bettencourt household and regularly dished out as gifts to several people was pored over in court. “When you’re called Bettencourt, you don’t help people out with a box of chocolates,” said one witness.
But the trial was more than just a family feud. Among the other accused is Eric Woerth , a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government and campaign treasurer for his 2007 presidential campaign. He is alleged to have taken an envelope of cash via his friend and fellow accused Patrice de Maistre, who managed Bettencourt’s fortune.
Bettencourt’s former accountant told the investigation she was asked by de Maistre in early 2007 to take out €150,000 cash for Woerth, adding, “It’s for Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign.” These allegations tarnished Sarkozy, who after being voted out as president was placed under formal investigation for illegal campaign financing and taking advantage of Bettencourt.
Those charges against Sarkozy were dropped in October 2013 due to lack of evidence. Woerth, who told the court “I did not receive cash from de Maistre to finance this campaign or anything else” is likely to be acquitted over lack of evidence.
Another accused, Alain Thurin, 64, a former nurse for the frail L’Oreal heiress, tried to hang himself in the woods near his house just before the start of his trial and is currently in a coma.
All the accused deny the charges. The judges are expected to return verdicts before the summer. The Bordeaux court will now go on to hear several other spin-off cases from the initial Bettencourt investigation – including a trial for influence-peddling in Bettencourt’s entourage, breech of privacy relating to secret tapes made by Bettencourt’s butler, and the case of an investigating magistrate accused of leaking inquiry details to the media.
