A POLICE investigation into the tax affairs of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt took a new twist yesterday when the billionaire’s financial adviser and three other figures were detained for questioning.
Patrice de Maistre, Ms Bettencourt’s wealth manager, and photographer François-Marie Banier, a close friend of the 87-year-old woman, were being held at the headquarters of the financial crimes division in Paris.
The public prosecutor’s office said that Fabrice Goguel, who is Ms Bettencourt’s tax lawyer, and Carlos Vejarano, the manager of a property in the Seychelles, were also being questioned. The men can be held for up to 48 hours.
The Bettencourt saga – a private inheritance dispute within one of France’s richest families that engulfed the ruling UMP party and some of its most senior figures – has left President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government badly shaken.
Mr Banier, a celebrity photographer, is already facing trial after being accused by Ms Bettencourt’s daughter of exploiting the elderly woman’s fragile state of mind to obtain gifts estimated to be worth up to €1 billion.
With Mr Banier’s trial approaching, secret recordings made by a former butler at the Bettencourt home were recently leaked to French media, and appeared to contain references to undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland and an island of obscure ownership in the Seychelles.
The tapes also included references to labour minister Éric Woerth, whose wife worked for Ms Bettencourt’s wealth manager, causing a political furore that has put the government under intense pressure in recent weeks.
It has also been alleged – and denied by the ruling UMP party – that the L’Oréal heiress and her late husband made illegal donations to Mr Sarkozy’s presidential election campaign.
While there are three official investigations under way into different aspects of the Bettencourt case, it appears yesterday’s arrests relate to claims of tax evasion and in particular the status of the island of Arros in the Seychelles. According to the secret recordings, Ms Bettencourt appeared to have given the island – acquired through a bank in Switzerland and valued at about €500 million – to Mr Banier.
To show she was mentally competent, Ms Bettencourt, the main shareholder in L’Oréal, this week ordered an audit into firms managing her fortune.
The move came in response to a renewed attempt by her daughter, Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt, to have her mother declared mentally unfit and made a ward of court.
Attempting to regain the initiative after a trying fortnight for the government, Mr Sarkozy gave a one-hour interview to France 2 television earlier this week in which he described as “calumny and lies” the allegations made against him and Mr Woerth.
According to an opinion poll in Le Parisien, however, just 32 per cent of voters found the president's performance convincing. A separate poll in Le Figarogave a more favourable impression, although those who found his interview convincing were still in a minority, at 44 per cent.
Mr Sarkozy has signalled that a cabinet reshuffle will take place in October, but has reaffirmed his confidence in Mr Woerth.
The finance ministry’s tax inspectorate concluded in a report this week that Mr Woerth had not intervened in the tax affairs of the Bettencourts, their wealth manager or friends.