L'Oreal heiress, France's richest woman,settles legal dispute with daughter

Liliane Bettencourt

France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, has settled a legal dispute with her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, which prompted investigations into tax and political funding and even threatened to draw in the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

     In a statement released on behalf of the pair, Bettencourt said the bitter row – which began with a disagreement over her lavish gifts to a family friend – had been resolved.
   Bettencourt Meyers accused a celebrity photographer, François-Marie Banier, of abusing her 87-year-old mother's alleged mental frailty by accepting gifts from her worth €1bn (£800m).
     The initial family feud led to claims of tax evasion and illegal political financing.
     Sarkozy's labour minister, Eric Woerth, left the government last month amid allegations that he was involved in illegal financing of the ruling UMP party and influence-peddling on behalf of Bettencourt.
     Under the terms of the deal, Bettencourt Meyers has agreed to drop a criminal complaint made against Banier in 2007, alleging that he swindled her mother.

     Secret tapes recorded by Bettencourt's butler, followed by leaks and accounts from former Bettencourt staff, raised allegations of potential tax evasion, influence-peddling and illegal donations to the UMP.
     Subsequently, Le Monde newspaper accused Sarkozy of ordering France's counter-intelligence services to spy on one of its reporters in order to investigate the source of leaks related to the Bettencourt case.