PARIS — Police officers investigating allegations of tax evasion and illegal political donations by the heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, detained her wealth manager, her former tax lawyer, a property manager and her close companion, a photographer, for questioning Thursday.
The scandal has touched the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, after news emerged of tapes made secretly by Bettencourt’s former butler that suggested efforts to evade taxes, and after a former accountant for her said envelopes of cash for the 2007 presidential campaign had been given to Eric Woerth, the treasurer of Sarkozy’s party.
Woerth, who is now also Labor minister, Sarkozy and attorneys for Bettencourt have denied any wrongdoing.
