Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Tea and Envelopes: L’affaire Bettencourt

L’affaire Bettencourt



Liliane Bettencourt of course being the 87-year-old heiress to the L’Oréal fortune and, with a net worth of $20 billion, the richest woman in Europe. The affair started as a family one. Bettencourt’s daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, claimed that her mother was being manipulated by her own entourage, and losing her fortune as a result. However, it really caught the international media’s attention after the investigation allegedly revealed illegally large and illegally unconventional political donations made to members of President Sarkozy’s administration, particularly Labour Minister Éric Woerth. The New York Times explains:
The police are pursuing an allegation from a disgruntled former Bettencourt accountant, Claire Thibout, that Mr. Woerth was illicitly given 150,000 euros in cash for Mr. Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. Money, she said, was not just for Mr. Woerth. Without being specific, Ms. Thibout said many politicians arrived for tea and envelopes.
Thus we have because-you’re-Woerth-it-gate (on checking, I wasn’t the first to think of that - I’m not about to do a Cheggers). President Sarkozy, who the New York Times has likened to a certain oil company because of his failure to stop the press leaks during the affair, has seen his approval ratings fall dramatically.

L’affaire Bettencourt has existed as an accusatory family feud since the end of 2007, when Bettencourt’s daughter lodged a criminal complaint against François-Marie Banier, the French artist, novelist, playwright and photographer (friends with Dali, Yves Saint Laurent, Jagger…and he did Johnny Depp for Vanity Fair). Françoise Bettencourt Meyers accused Banier of influencing her mother for his own personal gain, citing the $1 billion worth of cash and other items he had received from Liliane Bettencourt. The allegations went on - and continue to go on - with mother and daughter offering very different interpretations. Daughter: my mother is frail and susceptible, and people around her are siphoning off her money. Mother: “My daughter is more introverted then [sic] someone very sociable like François-Marie Banier, […] That’s a little annoying for her. But in the past she was always a cold child” [1]. Watching all of this, commentaries were either leaning towards ‘good for her’ (her being the generous mother) or ‘good for her’ (her being the vigilant daughter).

But then this year the Bettencourt affair resounded politically. On 16th June the French news site Mediapart published recordings made by Liliane Bettencourt’s butler, Pascal Bonnefoy. Bonnefoy seems to have been as concerned as the daughter about Liliane Bettencourt’s entourage. He was so concerned in fact that he secretly recorded 100 hours of Bettencourt’s conversations with her advisors between May 2009 and May 2010. The recordings reportedly suggest tax evasion on Bettencourt’s part, as well as conflicts of interest between her and Woerth. The police - and occasionally the naughty media who receive the leaks - have been having a good listen to the recordings. The New York Times says: ‘The tapes, made in Mrs. Bettencourt’s home, capture her advisers and others — including Mr. Banier — talking to her about tax havens, tax evasion, Swiss bank accounts, the Woerths, Mr. Sarkozy, and political contacts and contributions.’

The tapes and their now speculated, now confirmed contents have given this story the zing of Watergate, though hopefully not the endless televised trials and feature films. President Sarkozy looked to be in line for questioning until Claire ‘tea and envelopes’ Thibout denied having said that Sarkozy himself received envelopes. At the same time her lawyer attacked the unacceptable pressure investigators had put on Thibout to retract her allegations.

Still, it was alleged that Liliane Bettencourt had given Éric Woerth money for the UMP and President Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, doing so in exchange for Woerth overlooking her financial irregularities. Woerth was exonerated of this in a report compiled at the tax inspectorate, though some have questioned the independent credentials of the report [2]. Éric Woerth’s wife Florence having been hired by Liliane Bettencourt for financial advice does not help to allay suspicions.

The investigations continue, with Liliane Bettencourt questioned by police on Monday. Her lawyer said that she was asked about her connection to Mr Woerth, as well as her two Swiss bank accounts, which the tape recordings allegedly show her to have considered using to avoid French taxes. According to the Independent, Bettencourt has said she will repatriate the funds from the hitherto undisclosed Swiss bank accounts.

Whether Françoise Bettencourt Meyers’s attempts to prove that her mother was too confused to handle her own affairs were a benevolent effort to protect her interests, or a scheme to take control of her finances, surely daughter did not intend or expect to put mother under criminal investigation - let alone members of the French government. That it has all escalated from the hardly rare spectacle of familial litigiousness over money has been the story’s appeal for the media. The New York Times quotes Arthur Goldhammer, Senior Affiliate at Harvard’s Center for European Studies: “This saga is the French King Lear: a thankless child attacks a failing parent and a regime totters.” Now we know who writes those off-kilter blurbs that appear on the back of the DVD cases of our favourite movies.

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[1] Doreen Carvajal, ‘Generous to a Fault?’ New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/fashion/23loreal.html> 21 August 2009.

[2] Hugh Schofield, ‘Sarkozy battles to shake off Bettencourt scandal,’ BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10608564> 12 July 2010.

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