L’Oreal family at war over $2.3bn ‘gift’ to friend

ONE of the world’s richest women appears to have taken L’Oreal’s most famous slogan “because you’re worth it” a step too far and caused a huge financial rift with her daughter.

With a personal fortune estimated by Forbes at $34 billion (€25bn), heiress to the cosmetics and beauty giant L’Oreal Liliane Bettencourt, 86, has given $2.3bn to a photographer friend.

Francois-Marie Banier, 61, a jet-set photographer, painter and writer, who is a friend to the stars, was the recipient of the money.

However, her only child, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 54, who sits with her husband and mother on L’Oreal’s board of directors, has brought a legal action that suggests that her mother’s great age makes her vulnerable to “abuse”, saying she was not in full command of her senses when she gave away the money.

Mme Bettencourt is understood to have funded life insurance policies worth nearly €2.3bn for the photographer.

It is understood inspectors from France’s judicial police recently questioned her about the gift but she insisted the money was hers to spend as she liked.

Mrs Bettencourt told Le Figaro magazine last month that: “Fortune is an opportunity. When one has received a lot, one must love giving — simply, without ulterior motives, without calculation, without waiting for a ‘return on investment’. And thus to give back freely to society a part of what one has received.”

Now it is up to the public prosecutor to decide whether to open a formal inquiry.

Mme Bettencourt declined to undergo medical examinations to prove her mental capacity to the inspectors.

The row is part of a long-running dispute between mother and daughter, who have not spoken to each other for years.

Mme Bettencourt’s lawyer, François Goguel, said: “She is travelling in the United States at present and is very well. She does not wish to make any comment on what is a private affair.” The lawyer insisted the figure had been greatly “exaggerated”.

Liliane Bettencourt is a daughter of L’Oreal founder Eugene Schueller, a man who is said to have a chequered past with wartime ties to the Nazi regime. She has held the stock for more than four decades. She became a widow in November 2007 when her husband, Andre Bettencourt, 88, died.