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L’Oréal heiress declared mentally unfit

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Summary of story from The Independent,  October 18, 2011

France’s wealthiest woman and the heir to the L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, has been declared mentally  unfit and placed under the protection of her daughter and grandsons.

Bettencourt told a newspaper last month that such a scenario would be her ‘”worst nightmare” but a court in the Paris suburbs nevertheless decided yesterday that she was suffering from a form of Alzheimer’s disease and could no longer manage her own affairs.

She was made a ward of her eldest grandson, Jean-Victor Meyers, 25, and her fortune, estimated to be around $18 billion, including a majority interest in the cosmetics giant L’Oréal, was placed under the control of her daughter and two grandsons.

Ms Bettencourt’s lawyers said they would appeal against what they described as a “profoundly disappointing” ruling.

The scandal also took on political overtones after transcripts of Liliane Bettencourt’s private conversations were leaked to the press. These seemed to suggest that she might have given illegal campaign funds to politicians, including the 2007 presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Elysée Palace has since been accused of illegally using the French internal security services to spy on journalists to try to block leaks in the Bettencourt affair.

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