Following a six-month family truce, the daughter of L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt has re-applied to have her mother placed as a ward of court amid fresh concerns over the management of the 88 year-old's personal finances, including suspicions of conflicts of interest in a business deal brokered by her newly-appointed legal protector and wealth manager, reports Karl Laske.
The move, made Tuesday, followed a police raid on Liliane Bettencourt's mansion home in Neuilly, just west of Paris, in the presence of an examining magistrate accompanied by a medical team.
That was prompted by her failure to respond to two earlier summonses to appear before the magistrate in connection with ongoing investigations, notably into suspected illegal political party financing and influence peddling. She said she was unable to attend the appointments because of injuries sustained in a recent fall.
Liliane Bettencourt, France's wealthiest woman and fifth wealthiest person in Europe, with a personal fortune estimated at more than 15 billion euros, was last year at the centre of a major political and financial scandal sparked by her donations to a French high-society dandy François-Marie Banier of gifts, including art works and insurance policies, valued at 1 billion euros.
Her daughter and only child, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, 57, launched legal action against Banier for "abuse" of Liliane's mental frailty, and a lengthy legal procedure to have her mother made a ward of court. Both actions were dropped after a settlement between all parties that included Banier's pledge to stay away from Bettencourt and to return part of the sums he received, and the dismissal of the matriarch's wealth manager, Patrice de Maistre, who was also targeted by the legal action.
The family feud had become a major political scandal after Mediapart last June exclusively revealed the contents of secret tape recordings of conversations between Liliane Bettencourt and Maistre. These revealed a catalogue of evidence concerning tax evasion, influence peddling, suspected illegal funding of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, and which led to the exclusion from government of labour minister Eric Woerth (click here for more).
The December settlement between Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers and the parties targeted in her private legal action did not halt preliminary judicial investigations already underway into "abuse" of Liliane's mental frailty, suspected illegal party funding and influence peddling, and which are now led by magistrates based in Bordeaux. It was one of them, judge Jean-Michel Gentil, who carried out the raid on Liliane's Neuilly homethis week.
The new "concerns" raised by Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers in her latest application launched Tuesday and first revealed by French daily Le Monde, follow Liliane's agreement last month to invest 143 million euros in Lov Group Industrie, the holding company of Stéphane Courbit, former head of TV reality show production company Endemol France.
The deal was brokered by her new wealth manager, lawyer Pascal Wilhelm, who replaced the disgraced Patrice de Maistre after last year's settlement between Liliane and Françoise.
But doubts over a possible conflict of interest were raised partly because Wilhelm, who was once a lawyer acting for Maistre, is also a lawyer for Courbit. They were further strengthened by the fact that MessierMaris & Associés, a business consultancy jointly run by former Vivendi chief executive and chairman Jean-Marie Messier, who is also a client of Wilhelm's, acted as advisor for the creation of a financial structure through which the money was paid.
This was the establishment of a new company, Financière l'Arcouest, named after the billionaire's holiday home in Brittany, and for which she is soleshareholder. Mediapart has obtained a copy (see below) of a document in which Liliane Bettencourt agrees to give Wilhelm specific powers to "act in her name"and "on her behalf" for the creation of the company. Dated May 13th, it specifies that Wilhelm is also empowered to manage the provision of a loan by Financière l'Arcouest to Courbit's holding, LG Industrie, of 43,750,000 euros.
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'He is my lawyer and my protector'
Under the terms and provisions of the Bettencourt family settlement agreed last December, and which he helped draft, Wilhelm became Liliane's legal ‘protector' after a medical exam completed in January found her mental faculties had become diminished.
In an interview with French daily Le Figaro in April, Liliane Bettencourt spoke warmly of Wilhelm, who she described as "in charge" of her personal wealth. "He is someone who is very proper, very serious, organized and diligent, in whom I have great confidence," she said. "He is my lawyer and my protector, in the legal sense of the term. He informs me, for I like to be made aware, and that allows us to exchange our points of view."
A source close to the Bettencourt family and who did not want to be named, spoke to Mediapart of the doubts raised by the May 13th document. "Why draw up a specific mandate when he already has a general mandate?" the source asked. "Liliane Bettencourt does not engage the funds of [Bettencourt's holding company] Théthys. It would have been more difficult within the family holding."
The cash provided to LG Industrie will serve not only Courbit's TV production activities but also his online betting operations, managed by Betclic Mangas. Courbit told French financial daily Les Echos, which first reported the deal, that he had been seeking "a long-term investor, with a preference for a family group". However, the association between L'Oréal's majority shareholder and a betting operation is unlikely to sit comfortably with the cosmetic group's image.
Pascal Wilhelm did not return Mediapart's calls for an interview, but sources close to Courbit confirmed that the lawyer had "organized" the transaction on the basis that he was legal council to both Liliane Bettencourt and Stéphane Courbit.
Meanwhile, the application by Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers have her mother made a ward of court comes just weeks before the Paris Court of Appeal was due to decide on the validity of her December agreement to drop her previous application. The appeal court was approached by judge Stéphanie Kass-Danno, initially in charge of the application who, according to a source close to the case, expressed doubts over the agreement to appoint Wilhelm as her legal ‘protector' following the January medical examination.
"When she saw Liliane Bettencourt, she observed that she was not on the top of her form," said the source."Taking note of the family's decision, she judged that the mandate was concluded at a somewhat preoccupying moment." The renewal of Françoise's application now means, whatever the appeals court will decide, that judge Kass-Danno may now review the roles currently given to Wilhelm.
Also later this month, the magistrates in Bordeaux will decide on whether there are grounds for a judicial case against François-Marie Banier, Patrice de Maistre and Liliane' Bettencourt's formal fiscal lawyer, Patrice Goguel, over allegations of their "abuse" of Liliane Bettencourt's mental frailty.
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