Tax Lawyer May Not Be So Loyal to L'Oreal Heiress

Liliane Bettencourt is the L’Oreal heiress and France’s richest woman.  A French tax lawyer, Fabrice Goguel was suspected of abusing the 89-year-old heiress’s fragile state.  Experts say that her mental faculties started becoming weak in 2006. 

In 1998, Mrs. Bettencourt bought some islands in the Indian Ocean archipelago for $17.6 million.  Investigators say that Mr. Goguel persuaded Mrs. Bettencourt to give the island and 20 million euros to his Liechtenstein-based Foundation for Ecological balance.  He has now been charged with swindling Mrs. Bettencourt, and his lawyer argues that he was only “’scrupulously execut[ing] the missions that Mrs. Bettencourt charged him with.’”

See Heiress Liliane Bettencourt ‘tricked into handing over island’, Estate of Denial, Sept. 18, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.