Liliane Bettencourt gave a photographer about €1 billion, and her daughter's complaint ended in his conviction

Liliane Bettencourt inherited L'Oréal from her father in 1957. Over two decades she gave the photographer François-Marie Banier gifts reported at nearly €1 billion. They included life insurance policies worth €253 million in 2003 and €262 million in 2006, signed after hospital stays, and paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian. In December 2007 her only child, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, filed a criminal complaint for abuse of weakness. Liliane refused medical examinations. Her butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, secretly recorded her conversations in 2009 and 2010. Mediapart published the tapes on 16 June 2010. They reportedly covered undeclared Swiss accounts and minister Éric Woerth. A former accountant alleged cash went to Sarkozy's 2007 campaign; she later retracted the Sarkozy part, and he was dropped from the case on 7 October 2013. On 17 October 2011 a judge placed Liliane under family guardianship. On 28 May 2015 the Bordeaux criminal court gave Banier three years, six months suspended, a €350,000 fine and €158 million in damages. Her adviser Patrice de Maistre got 30 months. Woerth was acquitted. On appeal in 2016 Banier's term became four years suspended with a €375,000 fine and €1 in damages. The Cour de cassation made it final in January 2019. Liliane died aged 94. In 2026 Françoise and her family own more than a third of L'Oréal, and Forbes put her worth at $104 billion on 26 October 2026.