Sarkozy caught up in Liliane Bettencourt scandal

The saga's roots lie in the affairs of France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt. Aged 87, she is the the only child of of the L’Oreal founder, Eugéne Schueller, and has a fortune estimated at €17bn
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Bettencourt's daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Myers, right, set the ball rolling in 2007 when she lodged an official complaint with French police that, she said, sought to protect her enfeebled mother from the attentions of her friend François-Marie Banier.
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Banier, a 63-year old photographer and socialite, pictured at Nanterre courthouse near Paris, was accused of manipulating Liliane Bettencourt into giving him gifts worth millions, including paintings by Picasso and Matisse
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Banier's trial was adjourned indefinitely after Pascal Bonnefoy, Bettencourt’s butler of two decades, revealed that he had secretly recorded conversations which he claimed would show that his employer was being ‘abused by people without scruples’. Above: Bettencourt's home outside Paris
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One voice featured in the recordings released to the court is that of Bettencourt’s chief financial adviser, Patrice de Maistre. Conversations appear to suggest tax evasion involving bank accounts in Switzerland and Singapore. Above: journalists wait in front of De Maistre's apartment
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Another name heard on the tapes is that of a Florence Woerth, who was hired by De Maistre to work on Bettencourt’s finances. She is the has led a high-profile crackdown on tax evasion
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The revelation about his wife was bad enough for the minister’s squeaky clean reputation, but worse was to come: Woerth was alleged this week to have taken an illegal €150,000 donation from Bettencourt for Sarkozy’s election campaign
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The latest twist in the saga came on Monday when Claire Thibout, a former accountant for Bettencourt, made the allegations about campaign donations. She has subsequently retracted part of her claims, which she says were misreported
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Today police raided Patrice de Maistre's home and the offices of his company, Clymène (above) which handles part of Bettencourt’s fortune and where Florence Woerth worked
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The Elyseé went on the offensive this week, dismissing the allegations of illegal campaign funding as the ‘baseless’ smear attempts of a leftwing cabal. But the negative headlines have piled pressure on an already floundering president who is relying on Woerth to push through his flagship pension reform
Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA