In a courtroom in southwestern France, advisers and confidants of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt have been on trial, accused of “exploiting her fading mental state to plunder cash, artworks, life insurance and a private Seychelles island,”
a
New York Times
report said.
The case sparked a political scandal over a contribution to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
Bettencourt, 92, did not attend the trial, which ended on Feb. 25, the article noted. A court-appointed guardian has been monitoring her since 2011, when a court determined she has dementia and “moderately severe Alzheimer’s,” the article said.
The panel of judges said they would announce a verdict on May 28, the report said.
Forbes
has estimated Bettencourt’s wealth at more than $40 billion, the
Times
article noted.
Photographer François-Marie Banier, 67, faces a three-year sentence — the highest penalty faced by any of the ten defendants — for taking about €1 billion ($1.13 billion), the article said. His lawyers argued that Bettencourt knowingly and willingly gave him gifts.
The
Times
report said that other defendants are Banier’s longtime companion, Martin d’Orgeval, 41; Bettencourt’s former wealth manager, Patrice de Maistre; and Jean-Michel Normand, an 81-year-old notary who certified Bettencourt’s decision to make Banier her sole heir and cut out her only child, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, 61. That document was later revoked. Also on trial are a lawyer, a businessman, the former manager of Bettencourt’s private island, and her former nurse, Alain Thurin, who attempted suicide before the trial and is now in a coma, the article noted.
“Investigators say they believe the amount of money taken from Mrs. Bettencourt totals more than €1 billion from a variety of schemes,” the article said.
Bettencourt-Meyers sued Banier in 2007, accusing him of exploiting her mother’s mental decline to take her money. Bettencourt-Meyers testified that Banier’s strategy was “to break and conquer. To break our family,” the
Times
article said. Banier’s influence on Bettencourt increased after the death of Bettencourt’s husband, André, in 2007, the article said.
Others who testified at the trial included Bettencourt’s grandson Jean-Victor Meyers and Bettencourt’s household staff, the article noted.
The prosecutor recommended that charges be dropped against five defendants, including former finance minister Eric Woerth, because of insufficient evidence, the report said. (Source:
New York Times
, Feb. 25, 2015.)
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