Nicolas Sarkozy investigated over ‘cash in envelopes’ from L’Oréal heiress

Corruption claims: Nicolas Sarkozy has been hit with illicit payments allegations
Peter Allen|In Paris12 April 2012

Prosecutors and police launch an investigation into cash payments allegedly made to President Nicolas Sarkozy by France's richest woman.

Prosecutors in Paris demanded access to an account at BNP Paribas bank linked to billionaire L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Ms Bettencourt, 87, who is the main shareholder in the cosmetics giant, is said to have regularly provided Mr Sarkozy with "manila envelopes stuffed with cash" following dinner parties at her house in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Mr Sarkozy was once mayor and where he still keeps a home.

Claire Thibout, a 52-year-old accountant who helped manage Ms Bettencourt's fortune, said: "Everyone in the household knew that Sarkozy also saw the Bettencourts for money. He was a regular visitor."

Mrs Thibout's statement to police has led to prosecutors in Nanterre, another Paris suburb, launching an investigation. One secret cash payment to Mr Sarkozy's presidential election campaign was said to be worth as much as £125,000.

A legal source in Nanterre said: "Police have confiscated accounting records following a long interview with Mrs Thibout, and now the prosecutor has called for account details from BNP Paribas. This is the start of a major investigation into these alleged financial irregularities."

Mr Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Mrs Bettencourt, but Mrs Thibout said he was a regular visitor at her house between 1993 and 2002, while he was mayor of Neuilly.

Mrs Thibout said she would regularly withdraw large sums in cash from a bank in Paris's 16th arrondissement, which were then packed into envelopes. "Nicolas Sarkozy used to get his envelope too," she said.

Mr Sarkozy has denounced the allegation as "libel that aims only to smear, without the slightest basis in reality".

Mrs Thibout has pointed to Eric Woerth, a senior minister and treasurer of Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, as being at the centre of the corruption. Mr Woerth, whose wife was a financial adviser to Ms Bettencourt until she resigned last month, has resisted opposition calls to stand down.

He denies all wrongdoing or any conflict of interest when he held parallel offices as party treasurer and, until March, budget minister. "I did not receive a single euro illegally," said Mr Woerth.

Mrs Thibout made her allegations after she was questioned by police investigating secret recordings of conversations between Ms Bettencourt and her wealth manager, Patrice de Maistre — which alluded to tax fraud and financing the UMP.

The recordings emerged after Ms Bettencourt's only child, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, filed a claim against a friend of her mother, saying he exploited her mental weakness to obtain sumptuous gifts.

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