L'Oreal Heiress Bettencourt's Financial Adviser Held
L’Oreal SA heiress Liliane Bettencourt’s financial adviser, Patrice de Maistre, was released today after being held by police for a second time for questioning over possible tax evasion by France’s richest woman.
De Maistre had previously been detained by police on July 15, a spokeswoman for the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said in a telephone interview. He was held for five hours, she said. The prosecutor’s office gave no details about the questioning.
The adviser was also questioned about possible illegal financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2007. That investigation was started last month after Bettencourt’s former butler released recordings in which de Maistre refers to political gifts and overseas bank accounts.
Yesterday Labor Minister Eric Woerth, the treasurer for Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party during the presidential race, was also questioned by a police unit specializing in financial crime in connection with the probe.
Woerth “denied receiving any campaign financing except that authorized by the law,” his lawyer Jean-Yves Le Borgne told reporters yesterday in Paris.
To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net.
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