An ugly fight over L’Oreal heiress’ fortune

In a chic Paris suburb, inside the luxury villa of France’s richest woman, nobody much cared what the butler saw.

When L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt met her advisors or lawyers to discuss secret Swiss bank accounts or lavish gifts to a male friend, the butler would simply bring in refreshments, then leave.

But what the butler heard, thanks to a cheap tape recorder smuggled in with the bone china teacups and silver spoons, has proved an explosive twist to a high-profile battle for the Bettencourt billions.

This month, celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier, a 63-year-old socialite dandy, went on trial, accused of tricking Bettencourt, 87, out of art masterpieces, cash and insurance policies worth $1.25 billion.

FOR THE RECORD: This article states that the Bettencourt fortune is $28 billion. The heiress’ fortune is listed at $18 billion.

Bettencourt’s estranged daughter, Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt, is alleging in a civil lawsuit that he exploited her aging mother’s frailty.

The case started out as a run-of-the-mill family dispute among Bettencourt, her only child and Banier over who gets what. It has become a political scandal embroiling government ministers and even President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The first salvo was fired at Sarkozy’s administration when the butler’s tapes revealed that Bettencourt had employed the wife of then-Budget Minister Eric Woerth, even as she was allegedly stashing $99 million in secret Swiss bank accounts to cheat the taxman.

Police began investigating Sarkozy directly last week after allegations by Bettencourt’s former bookkeeper that the heiress made an illegal cash donation to the president’s election campaign in 2007. The claim was vehemently denied by the French leader and his entourage, but Woerth, currently labor minister, now faces even louder calls to resign because he is also treasurer of Sarkozy’s ruling conservative party.

On Friday, police searched the home of Bettencourt’s financial advisor, Patrice de Maistre, who is at the heart of their investigation of allegations of suspected secret donations.

As new damaging allegations emerge daily, the mood at Elysee Palace was described by French journalists as shocked, panicked and a “state of emergency.” With his popularity at an all-time low, Sarkozy has taken the unusual step of agreeing to a TV interview Monday promising to answer questions on the “cash-for-campaigns” donation scandal, which he says is a smear operation.

The twists and turns of “L’Affaire Bettencourt” became a daily soap opera after Banier’s trial opened with an extraordinary scene of France’s two most famous lawyers trading insults and threats over whether the tapes — which the butler says he made on his own initiative because he was dismayed to see Bettencourt being “abused” — were admissible in court.

The hearing, since adjourned so the tapes can be examined, is expected to throw light on the curious relationship between Bettencourt and Banier: an enormously rich elderly woman and her much younger protege.

For more than 20 years, Bettencourt has been held in thrall to Banier, a photographer, artist, playwright and novelist, not to mention social gadfly and international charmer. This odd couple — the grande dame and the man once nicknamed l’enfant cheri, or the spoiled child — have long been the gossip of Paris’ chic salons.

Their story contains the usual novella essentials — wealth, love, beauty, glamour, generosity, perfidy and betrayal — but without the sex. No one has suggested their friendship is anything other than platonic.

What elevates it from a mundane family squabble is that Bettencourt is France’s richest woman (the world’s 17th-richest person, according to Forbes magazine). If money talks, $18 billion screams.

The “Butlergate” recordings appear devastating to Banier, who denies exploiting his patron, and Bettencourt, who says she is fit to do what she wants with her fortune.

In one recording, the heiress is heard saying, “He is someone I like very much, he’s very intelligent … but he’s becoming too demanding: ‘Give me this, give me that.’ ”

Bettencourt, the only child of L’Oreal founder Eugene Schueller, was raised in a stifling cocoon of privilege. She met Banier, who has worked for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair magazines, in 1985 when he was commissioned to take her picture with Italian film director Federico Fellini.

Banier had no money, but he was loaded with good looks and wit. He became a regular visitor to the Bettencourt villa, where the heiress held court with her husband, Andre.

Described by one international socialite as a “strategic master on the battlefield of charm,” Banier showered Bettencourt with flattery and amusing gossip of his friendships with Salvador Dali, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Samuel Beckett and Johnny Depp.

Soon the heiress was transferring property into his name, including masterpieces by Picasso, Mondrian, Delaunay, Man Ray and Matisse. Total worth: $24.4 million.

The gifts continued after Bettencourt was widowed in 2007, with family and staff becoming increasingly concerned. Witnesses told investigators that the increasingly forgetful, fragile and by now almost totally deaf heiress was being bullied by her friend.

Often she gave in to his whims: On holiday in the Seychelles in 2006, she sent her private jet back to Paris to collect his brushes when he was overtaken by the desire to paint.

Bettencourt says her daughter, “a cold child,” who will inherit most of her fortune, is just jealous. “She is rather introverted. So someone who is extroverted, like Francois-Marie, is a bit annoying for her,” Bettencourt said in a rare interview last year.

Her lawyer, Georges Kiejman, agrees: “The daughter is trying to use this court to settle an emotional conflict with her mother. It’s a 57-year-old girl complaining, ‘My mother doesn’t love me. She loves him more than me.’ ”

Although some see Banier as a gold digger, others speak warmly of his allure, charisma and magnetic character.

“I love him deeply as a person and I admire his talent as an artist,” said Belgian American designer Diane von Furstenberg, a friend for 30 years. “He is a man of quality.”

The French have a saying: Possession means conflict. For all those caught up in the Bettencourt-Banier saga, including President Sarkozy, the war has just begun.

Willsher is a special correspondent.