© Reuters

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign treasurer, former budget and labour minister Eric Woerth, has been placed under formal investigation for “handling" illlegal cash funding and for “influence peddling” by magistrates in charge of a major criminal enquiry into the affairs of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. Woerth (pictured), a close ally of the French president, is suspected of receiving at least 150,000 euros in a cash payment from Bettencourt to help fund Sarkozy’s successful bid for the presidency in 2007.

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