L’Oreal heiress ‘mentally unfit’ to manage fortune

FRANCE’S richest woman, the cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, has been ruled mentally unfit to manage her vast wealth and placed under the legal protection of relatives.

Lawyers for the L’Oreal heiress said a judge ordered the 88-year-old French billionaire and her fortune placed under the legal protection of her daughter and grandsons.

Ms Bettencourt’s lawyer, Jean-Rene Farthouat, called the decision by a judge yesterday in the western Paris suburb of Courbevoie “profoundly disappointing” and “quite simply criticisable”. It goes into effect immediately.

Ms Bettencourt’s heirs are reportedly concerned about her health, and her management of her fortune, estimated at €12 billion. She is a major shareholder in cosmetics giant L’Oreal, which was founded by her father, Eugene Schueller, in 1907.

Ms Bettencourt and her daughter, Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt, have waged a long battle over the management of the fortune, but late last year appeared to have resolved their legal dispute.

The judge’s decision yesterday was based in part on a court-ordered medical examination that found Ms Bettencourt suffered from “mixed dementia” and “moderately severe” Alzheimer’s disease.

In a recent television interview, Ms Bettencourt sharply criticised the attempts to put her under her daughter’s legal guardianship, calling it “a monstrous idiocy”. She had long refused to undergo the medical examination to evaluate her mental capacities before ultimately agreeing to it earlier this year.

Ms Bettencourt’s daughter had publicly accused celebrity photographer François-Marie Banier of abusing her mother’s alleged mental frailty and abusing her trust to con Liliane Bettencourt out of €1bn in cash, artworks and other gifts. Mr Banier, 62, a friend of Ms Bettencourt’s, has insisted he did not take advantage of her.

Ms Meyers-Bettencourt brought a case of “abuse of weakness” against Mr Banier in order to win back part of the money, but he was eventually cleared of wrong-doing.

During the hearing, Ms Bettencourt told the court: “What I have given to Mr Banier, though it seems a lot, is not that much when you put it in perspective.

“He is just a dear friend who I have known for two decades. I was in full possession of my faculties at all times.”

As the mother-daughter dispute escalated, Ms Bettencourt raised questions about the future of the cosmetics company once her daughter inherits it.

The Bettencourt family currently has a 31 per cent stake, with Nestlé of Switzerland the second-largest stakeholder.

In an interview published recently in France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Ms Bettencourt had threatened to leave France if her daughter managed to win guardianship.

She said: “If my daughter looks after me, I would feel stifled. If it’s her, I will leave.”

Ms Bettencourt’s lawyer said he planned to appeal.

The multi-billionairess was quizzed by police earlier this year over allegations she gave illegal campaign fund donations to president Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party.

It was alleged Mr Sarkozy himself collected “envelopes stuffed with money” from Ms Bettencourt at her home in the run-up to his election four years ago.

Mr Sarkozy’s spokesman branded the allegations “untrue and scandalous”.

Ms Bettencourt said she had no memory of giving money to UMP party officials and has made no comment about handing cash to Mr Sarkozy.