The daughter of Europe's richest woman has asked that her mother be placed under judicial supervision, BBC News reported. Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, 56, insists that her 87-year-old mother's lavish gifts to a friend -- totaling about $1.5 billion -- raise serious questions about her state of mind.
Liliane Bettencourt's fortune derives from her sizable stake in cosmetics giant L'Oreal. In 2009, Forbes estimated her worth at $13.4 billion, and declared her the 21st richest person on the planet.
Such wealth would seem to be virtually inexhaustible. But over the last few years, said the BBC, Bettencourt has showered huge quantities of money and gifts upon Francois-Marie Banier, a 62-year-old photographer and artist.
Bettencourt-Meyers has pressed charges against Banier, accusing him of manipulating her elderly mother and treating the cosmetics heiress as a human ATM. That case will come to court next week, said the BBC.
If convicted, Banier could serve up to three years in prison, said The New York Times. The charge is what the French call "abus de faiblesse" -- the exploitation of physical or psychological weakness for personal gain.
Full Article and Source:
Family Feud Over L'Oreal Billions
See Also:
Bitter L'Oreal Family Feud Set to Get Court Hearing
6 comments:
It's a lawyer's dream - a feast beyond belief!
This would be really tragic if it happened here. I don't know the laws in France but in England, they have 99 year leases on property (to protect it from vultures coming in and stealing the estate) and the trust accounts date back to the 1500's. So, they're doing something right over there.
Let's hope France is the same or Mrs. Meyers is making an awful lot of people happy. 1.5 billion may be "chump change" in comparison to the new friends she just invited into her mothers life.
Let the games begin!
i could see the bottom line after this is like someone dropped a bucket of blood in a shark tank sad thing is it sounds like the heiress Liliane Bettencourt's friendship with Francois-Marie Banier could have been taken advantage of due to manipulation $1.5 billion is a lot of money and it is significant that a large % of the net worth of the estate was given away just like that which should raise suspicions and be investigated fully
I think it's the mother's money until she dies; then it becomes an inheritance.
The daughter should back off.
Does anybody think the daughter is greedy here?
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