French heiress case postponed by secret tapes
Source: Agencies |
July 2, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FRENCH judges yesterday postponed a highly awaited trial involving France's richest woman because of surprising new evidence in the case of whether she fell prey to a schemer when she gave him 1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion) in gifts.
The new evidence ?? tapes secretly recorded by L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's butler ?? has thrown a twist into the case, implicating a minister and embarrassing French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
Judges postponed the trial indefinitely to give officials time to study the recordings.
The tapes leaked to French media in recent weeks on the sidelines of a legal case pitting Bettencourt against her only child. Her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, says a charming photographer manipulated her mentally weak 87-year-old mother into handing him part of her fortune.
Photographer Francois-Marie Banier is accused of exploitation and risks three years of jail. The trial opened briefly yesterday before the court decided to postpone it.
Banier, who insists he did not take advantage of an older friend, looked relaxed as he arrived for the proceedings in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Bettencourt is No. 17 on Forbes magazine's list of the richest people worldwide, with a net worth of US$20 billion. Mother and daughter no longer speak and neither was present in court.
Banier lawyer Herve Temime said the butler "crossed an uncrossable line" by making the recordings of the heiress talking to her financial advisers and described the trial as "nauseating."
In the recordings, Bettencourt's financial adviser speaks to her as though to a child, and she is sometimes confused. The heiress' lawyer defended her mental acuity, saying she is simply hard of hearing.
The tapes have also had serious political implications: adviser Patrice de Maistre is caught telling Bettencourt he hired Labor Minister Eric Woerth's wife as an investment adviser because the minister asked him to. Florence Woerth has since resigned, and the couple has denied there was a conflict of interest.
Until March, Eric Woerth was budget minister, in charge of pursuing tax dodgers. Woerth has been strongly backed by Sarkozy.
The new evidence ?? tapes secretly recorded by L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's butler ?? has thrown a twist into the case, implicating a minister and embarrassing French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
Judges postponed the trial indefinitely to give officials time to study the recordings.
The tapes leaked to French media in recent weeks on the sidelines of a legal case pitting Bettencourt against her only child. Her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, says a charming photographer manipulated her mentally weak 87-year-old mother into handing him part of her fortune.
Photographer Francois-Marie Banier is accused of exploitation and risks three years of jail. The trial opened briefly yesterday before the court decided to postpone it.
Banier, who insists he did not take advantage of an older friend, looked relaxed as he arrived for the proceedings in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Bettencourt is No. 17 on Forbes magazine's list of the richest people worldwide, with a net worth of US$20 billion. Mother and daughter no longer speak and neither was present in court.
Banier lawyer Herve Temime said the butler "crossed an uncrossable line" by making the recordings of the heiress talking to her financial advisers and described the trial as "nauseating."
In the recordings, Bettencourt's financial adviser speaks to her as though to a child, and she is sometimes confused. The heiress' lawyer defended her mental acuity, saying she is simply hard of hearing.
The tapes have also had serious political implications: adviser Patrice de Maistre is caught telling Bettencourt he hired Labor Minister Eric Woerth's wife as an investment adviser because the minister asked him to. Florence Woerth has since resigned, and the couple has denied there was a conflict of interest.
Until March, Eric Woerth was budget minister, in charge of pursuing tax dodgers. Woerth has been strongly backed by Sarkozy.
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