Sarkozy Denies Report He Got Cash From Bettencourt

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Sarkozy Denies Report He Got Cash From Bettencourt
July 06, 2010, 5:47 AM EDT


By Helene Fouquet

July 6 (Bloomberg) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office denied a report by the online news service Mediapart that he had received cash from L'Oreal SA heiress Liliane Bettencourt before his 2007 presidential campaign.

"This is totally untrue," Sarkozy's spokesman Franck Louvrier said in a telephone interview today.

Mediapart cited a former accountant for Bettencourt, identified only as Claire T., as saying that the heiress and her late husband Andre regularly provided money to Sarkozy, using envelopes containing cash, before the 2007 presidential election. The accountant told Mediapart that Bettencourt regularly gave money to politicians and that all the transactions were listed in her accounts.

The campaign-finance report came less than 48 hours after two ministers quit amid complaints over their personal expenses, compounding Sarkozy's political handicaps. His popularity is at its lowest level since he took office as he seeks to cut the deficit and tighten pension spending by raising the retirement age.

Claire T. was questioned by police twice yesterday, her lawyer, Antoine Gillot, said in a telephone interview today. "She feels relieved to have said something that had been weighing on her shoulders for so long," he said.

Police have also searched the accountant's house. She is accused by Bettencourt of stealing documents when she left the heiress's employment after 12 years in 2008.

Geneva Account

The accountant also said 87-year-old Bettencourt gave 150,000 euros ($188,940) in cash to Eric Woerth, then treasurer of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party. Part of the money handed over to Woerth was withdrawn from a Geneva-based account of Bettencourt, Claire T. told Mediapart.

"All this is false," Woerth told i-Tele news channel today. "Presidential campaign funding and UMP funding have always been carried out with total respect for the funding rules for political parties."

French regulations allow a maximum 7,500-euro donation from one person to a party each year.

Woerth was Sarkozy's budget minister from 2007 until this year and is currently labor minister in charge of Sarkozy's pension-overhaul proposal.

"The scandal threatens the position of Eric Woerth (in charge of pension reform) within the government and he may be forced to resign at some stage," Dominique Barbet, an economist at BNP Paribas in Paris, said in an e-mailed note today. "The position of the French government and President Sarkozy are further weakened today."

UMP party spokesman Frederic Lefebvre wasn't immediately available when called by Bloomberg.

Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a member of the ruling party, said that "it would be useful for the president to talk, and very quickly," when asked on Europe 1 radio today whether Sarkozy should speak to the nation about the allegations.

--Editors: Eddie Buckle, James Hertling.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at jhertling@bloomberg.net

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... court.html
1 comments
 

A Jew has to take bribe money...
by gmmonko on 06.07.2010 [21:20 ]    
...its part of the religion

.