Notes

PROLOGUE: LOST IN THE FOG

“Is it because she has no memory”: François-Marie Banier, Balthazar, fils de famille (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1985), 114.

world’s richest woman, worth $36.1 billion: Forbes website, accessed online November 14, 2016, http://www.forbes.com/pictures/heik45k/liliane-bettencourt/#3f6f27be482b.

“the odious accusations that I read”: Liliane Bettencourt, Déclaration de Madame Liliane Schueller Bettencourt, Formentor, July 23, 2010. Distributed by her press attaché.

Perhaps it all started: Details on Arcouest house and luncheon from Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 67.

Banier always denied it: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015; Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 101.

Meyers had formerly lived with: Pascal Greggory, interview with author, December 12, 2015; Richard Malka, interview with author, June 9, 2016; Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015; Stéphane Durand-Souffland, “Au procès Bettencourt, le compagnon de François-Marie Banier a adopté une posture détachée,” Le Figaro, May 14, 2016, accessed online May 15, 2016, http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2016/05/13/01016-20160513ARTFIG00312-d-orgeval-rubens-et-les-cadeaux-du-bonheur.php.

“He started speaking”: “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, l’interview vérité,” Le Figaro, June 25, 2010.

“Banier addressed Monsieur with irony”: Quoted by Hervé Gattegno, “Le majordome qui a fait trembler Sarkozy,” Vanity Fair (French edition), June 26, 2014, accessed online June 1, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/exclusif-affaire-bettencourt-le-majordome-bonnefoy-a-pose-un-dictaphone/14593.

Banier remembers the scene: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 69–70.

anti-Semitic diatribes: For details on André Bettencourt’s wartime articles and Eugène Schueller’s collaboration see chapters 1, 2, and 6.

“pulled into a sect” . . . “That was too much”: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, “Je n’ai qu’un but: retrouver ma mère,” Elle, July 9, 2010, 12.

she filed a criminal complaint: Olivier Metzner, complaint of December 19, 2007. Court document D00026.

CHAPTER 1: THE FOUNDER

a cook in his native Alsace: Pierre Volf, “Note pour M. Eugène Schueller,” May 10, 1948, 2. Archives Nationales Z/6 NL/498 dossier 11108. This is the complete investigative file on Schueller’s suspected Nazi collaboration, referred to hereafter in abbreviated form as AN Z/6.

son of a shoemaker: Bruno Abescat, La saga des Bettencourt (Paris: Plon, 2010), 62.

Schueller moved to Paris in 1871: Eugène Schueller deposition before the Cour de Justice, February 11, 1948, AN Z/6; Abescat, La saga, 62–63.

“Life was very rude”: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948, AN Z/6.

collapse of the Panama Canal Company: Abescat, La saga, 63; Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948.

“I succeeded brilliantly”: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948.

most of the lead-based concoctions: Jacques Marseille, L’Oréal: 1909–2009 (Paris: Perrin, 2009), 13.

“damages the brain and the eyesight”: Blanche Staffe, Usages du monde, règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne, par la Baronne Staffe (Paris: Victor-Havard, 1893), quoted in Marseille, L’Oréal, 25.

Schueller agreed to become: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948.

“It was a very difficult time”: Ibid.

In 1909, he founded: On the early history of the company, Marseille, L’Oréal, 13–19.

Things moved quickly: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 17–19; Abescat, La saga, 65.

he dabbled with Socialist ideas . . . became a Freemason: Abescat, La saga, 65–66.

He would eventually become a visceral opponent: Ibid., 90–91.

He volunteered for active duty: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948.

“peerless liaison officer”: Citation of December 23, 1917, AN Z/6.

his wife, Betsy, had run the company: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948; Vincent, Le roman vrai, 20.

considered a woman’s place to be in the home: Ian Hamel, Les Bettencourt: derniers secrets (Paris: l’Archipel, 2013), 38.

the influence of Coco Chanel: Vincent, Le roman vrai, 23.

By 1921, the company had permanent offices: Ibid.

Emboldened by the success: For all the details in this paragraph, see Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948, AN Z/6.

the Valstar Corporation, a manufacturer of paint: Marseille, L’Oréal, 42.

Invited by the new Soviet government: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948.

he was spending 300,000 francs: Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 39–40.

In a pitch aimed especially at the rural population: Ibid., 42.

“tell people that they’re disgusting”: Schueller, quoted in Ibid., 40.

“never . . . wash with their soap themselves”: Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress (London: Collins, 1954), ch. XI.

“the indifference of public opinion on questions of hygiene”: Cited in Marseille, L’Oréal, 39.

The results of Schueller’s campaign were impressive: Schueller deposition, February 11, 1948, AN Z/6.

Schueller was way ahead of his time: Abescat, La saga, 31; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 42; Vincent, Le roman vrai, 32–33.

The vacations, at least, were excellent: Marseille, L’Oréal, 75–85, on success of Ambre Solaire; Abescat, La saga, 67.

he had little use for democracy: Eugène Schueller, La révolution de l’économie (Paris: Ed. Robert Denoël, 1941), 122 and passim.

His main idea was the “proportional salary”: Abescat, La saga, 78–79.

“illegality” and “underground action”: Deloncle, quoted in Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 46.

Attracted by Schueller’s ideas: Abescat, La saga, 86–88.

Among the terrorist actions: René Rémond, La droite en France, de la Première Restauration à la Ve République (Paris: Editions Montaigne, 1968), vol. 1, 227; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 59–60.

On September 3, 1939: Jeremy D. Popkin, A History of Modern France (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001), 229–32.

By the time the armistice was signed: Ian Ousby, Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940–1944 (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000), ch. 1.

“I know full well”: Eugène Schueller, La révolution de l’économie, 122.

“We must rip from men’s hearts”: Ibid., 294.

“strong and durable government”: Ibid., 372.

Schueller’s book was part of a collection: Abescat, La saga, 81.

“our future minister of National Economy”: Quoted in Ibid., 89.

“We seek to construct”: Quoted in Ibid.

“blowing up the synagogues”: Annie Lacroix-Riz, Les élites françaises entre 1940 et 1944 (Paris: Armand Colin, 2016), 178.

Deloncle merged the group: Ousby, Occupation, 140; Abescat, La saga, 89.

Schueller served as president: Abescat, La saga, 89.

He later claimed that he had never belonged: Schueller depositions of February 18, 1948, and April 12, 1948, AN Z/6.

“None of these three peaceful revolutions”: Quoted in Abescat, La saga, 90.

“the essential thing for us”: Quoted in Ibid., 90–91.

Schueller had cause to regret: Ousby, Occupation, 303–310, on épuration details.

His troubles began: Georges Digeon deposition, January 8, 1946, AN Z/6; Marseille, L’Oréal, 95–101.

“all those who favored the undertakings”: Raymond Marchand, Le Temps des restrictions (Château-Gontier: Impr. de l’Indépendant, 2000), 540.

“for advancing the enemy’s designs”: Abescat, La saga, 96.

he was formally charged: Judge Marcel Gagne and Judge M. Callaud, Exposé, December 6, 1948, 1, AN Z/6.

“minimal percentage of German business”: Ibid.

“Schueller showed a certain activity”: Ibid.

“an influential member of the M.S.R.”: Report of the Renseignements Généraux [French police intelligence unit], January 26, 1942, quoted in Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 174–475.

Gestapo agents burst into his apartment: Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 378.

Deloncle’s son Louis: Pierre Péan, Une jeunesse française: François Mitterrand 1934–1947 (Paris: Pluriel, 2010), 522; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 264.

many ex-Cagoulards who were welcomed: See chapter 6.

One influential witness: Jacques Sadoul letter to Monsieur le Président du Comité interprofessionnel de l’épuration, June 29, 1946, AN Z/6.

Another was the Cagoulard turned Resistance leader: Pierre Guillain de Bénouville, atttestation of December 27, 1946, AN Z/6.

Not least among Schueller’s defenders: André Bettencourt letters to Eugène Schueller, January 29, 1944, September 27, 1944, AN Z/6; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 104–5.

His case was closed: Gagne and Callaud, Exposé, December 6, 1948, 6, AN Z/6.

Had he been convicted: Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 125.

L’Oréal’s sales nearly quadrupled: Gagne and Callaud, Exposé, 2.

Schueller officially ceased to be the director . . . remained on the board: Rapport d’expert dans l’affaire Schueller, December 23, 1947, 51, AN Z/6. In his statement to Judges Gagne and Callaud, Schueller claimed to have left Valentine’s board of directors in 1941; in fact, he remained on the board until well after the war and transferred his seat to André Bettencourt following the latter’s marriage to Liliane in 1950. André Bettencourt, Souvenirs (Paris, 1999), vol. 1, 95, 177.

Schueller was also instrumental: Annie Lacroix-Riz, Industriels et banquiers sous l’Occupation (Paris: Armand Colin, 1999), 327–28.

The administrator of Neochrome: Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 168–70.

“an ardent partisan”: Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 91.

linked through a company called Alginates: Lacroix-Riz, Industriels et banquiers, 328; Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 169; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 91.

Valentine’s official accounting records: Lacroix-Riz, Les elites, 169; Rapport d’expert dans l’affaire Schueller, December 23, 1947, 15, 30, AN Z/6.

as much as 95 percent of the company’s wartime tonnage: Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 169–70.

“The company Valentine”: Report of Renseignements Généraux, March 24, 1945, AN Z/6.

According to the Reich’s “Paint Plan”: Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 169; Annie Lacroix-Riz interview with author, October 21, 2015.

“augmented his fortune considerably”: Lacroix-Riz interview with author, October 21, 2015.

His tax returns for the period: Rapport d’expert dans l’affaire Schueller, December 23, 1947, 15, AN Z/6. These figures are subject to caution, since the 1940 amount may be artificially low due to the disruptions caused by the war.

involved in the deportation of French Jews: Ousby, Occupation, 229.

he listed Schueller: Helmut Knochen deposition, November 16, 1946, cited in Lacroix-Riz, Les élites, 171.

French investigators discovered a list: Ibid., 159.

“At the time I knew him”: Knochen deposition, November 22, 1946, cited in Ibid., 171.

designated as the future minister: Ibid., 171.

“all the members of the party”: Eugène Schueller circular letter of July 29, 1941, in Archives Nationales dossier Cour de Justice contre Michel Harispé Z/6/698 A/B. Copy provided to the author by French historian François Le Goarant de Tromelin.

The French unit was integrated: Ousby, Occupation, 202–3.

Taken together with his role: Jean-Marc Berlière, email to author, June 10, 2015. Berlière, emeritus professor of history at l’Université de Boulogne, affirms that these facts could conceivably have led to Schueller’s execution—by firing squad, since collaboration with the enemy was considered a military crime—though more likely would have resulted in the stripping of his civic rights.

“He was a man full of hope”: Liliane Bettencourt, quoted in Franz-Olivier Giesbert, François Mitterrand, une vie (Paris: Seuil, 1996), 96.

CHAPTER 2: THE HEIRESS AND THE CONSORT

“I was five years old”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Nicole Wisniak, “A partir d’un certain Chiffre, les gens Déraillent,” Egoïste, no. 10 (1987), 55.

“It allowed my father”: Ibid.

the Dominican nuns who . . . gave her a strict education: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Egoïste, 55.

Schueller married the comely Nita: Bruno Abescat, La saga des Bettencourt (Paris: Plon, 2010), 58.

“She never, ever talked”: Claude Delay, interview with author, September 10, 2015.

“What shaped me”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Arnaud Bizot, “Liliane Bettencourt nous ouvre les portes de son coeur,” Paris Match, September 30, 2010.

“6,000-hour” man: Abescat, La saga, 74.

he would typically rise at five a.m.: Merry Bromberger, quoted in Ibid., 74–75.

“I had a tray full of labels”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Paris Match, September 30, 2010.

“My father adored me”: Liliane Bettencourt conversation with Jean-Michel Normand, recorded September 12, 2009, by butler Pascal Bonnefoy. The complete transcript of Bonnefoy’s secret recordings is included in the investigative file. Henceforth, recorded material will be referenced simply by date.

Schueller had built a granite villa: Descriptions and history of the Arcouest property drawn from Ronan Le Flécher, “Liliane Bettencourt: l’Arcouest, parce qu’elle le vaut bien,” website of Agence Bretagne Presse, July 1, 2010, accessed online March 31, 2015, http://www.agencebretagnepresse.com/id=18912; Abescat, La saga, 32–33; Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 67.

Eugène never stayed more than two weeks: Abescat, La saga, 59–60.

“It was intense”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Paris Match, September 30, 2010.

“Have you seen those shoes?”: Liliane Betttencourt’s handwritten comment, dated March 21, 2010, in confiscated notebook of François-Marie Banier, included in the investigative file.

Bettencourt, then nineteen, had been introduced: André Bettencourt, Souvenirs (Paris, 1999), vol. 1, 57.

“didn’t find her extraordinary”: Martin d’Orgeval, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 97.

Bettencourt claimed to be a descendant: Details on family background from Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 7–14.

André judged him a “saint”: Ibid., vol. 1, 14.

The youngest of six children: Ibid., vol. 1, 39–46; also Pierre Bettencourt, Les désordres de la mémoire (Rouen: Bibliothèque Municipale de Rouen, 1998), 28 and passim. Copy made available to author by Bruno Abescat.

According to his own account: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 44–49.

Mitterrand, who belonged to a group: Pierre Péan, Une jeunesse française, 33–34.

frequented members of the notorious Cagoule: Ibid., 384–85 and passim. According to Péan, refuting persistent rumors, Mitterrand never actually joined the Cagoule. Ibid., 109.

Dalle secured an invitation: Ibid., 99.

Henri d’Orléans and Charles de Gaulle: Alain Peyerefitte, C’était de Gaulle (Paris: Éditions de Fallois/Fayard, 1997), vol. 2, 532.

“talked all the time”: Dalle, quoted in Péan, Jeunesse française, 99.

“Coming from the pine forest”: André Bettencourt, article in La Terre française, October 18, 1941, quoted in Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 116–17.

he attempted to enlist in Normandy: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 36, 59–61.

he also began writing for a paper: Abescat, La saga, 115; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 120. André Bettencourt explained the circumstances surrounding his work for La Terre française in his Souvenirs, vol. 1, 62–63, and in a letter to US congressman Eliot Engel, January 25, 1995, excerpted in Le Monde, February 14, 1995.

“The Jews, hypocritical Pharisees”: Bettencourt, La Terre française, April 12, 1941, quoted in Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 123.

“The young must be”: Bettencourt, La Terre française, October 11, 1941, quoted in Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 127–28.

“revolutionary current of the new Europe”: Bettencourt, La Terre française, July 19, 1941, quoted in Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 125.

Mobilized into the army: Péan, Jeunesse française, 111–18.

After two failed attempts: Jean Védrine, ed., Dossier Les prisonniers de guerre, Vichy et la Résistance, 1940–1945 (Paris: Fayard, 2013), 489–91; Péan, Jeunesse française, 173.

Mitterrand entered the Resistance: Védrine, Prisonniers, 493–94; Péan, Jeunesse française, 297–323.

Mitterrand enlisted Bettencourt: Védrine, Prisonniers, 179.

His role was to recruit Resistance members: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 66.

Bettencourt was arrested by the Gestapo: Ibid., vol. 1, 70–73.

“the experience of the cell”: André Bettencourt, letter to Eugène Schueller, January 29, 1944, AN Z/6.

François herself was jailed, tortured: Védrine, Prisonniers, 315.

Working in the Geneva office: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 75–83; Péan, Jeunesse française, 423; Védrine, Prisonniers, 180–81.

impressive collection of decorations: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 84–85; Védrine, Prisonniers, 182.

Bettencourt’s first step: Abescat, La saga, 50; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 178–79.

“such a good-looking guy”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

“You have spoken to me about your fears”: André Bettencourt, letter to Eugène Schueller, January 29, 1944, AN Z/6.

Schueller offered to send money: André Bettencourt, letter to Eugène Schueller, September 27, 1944, AN Z/6.

Schueller invited the young man: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 126.

the very place where his mother had died: Pierre Bettencourt, Désordres, 100.

“letters and presence”: Ibid., 100.

She fell in love with the country: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 98–99.

“His mentality was too far from mine”: Liliane Bettencourt conversation, as transcribed by François-Marie Banier, May 2, 2010, in Banier’s confiscated notebook.

It was some years after the Moroccan romance broke off: Liliane Bettencourt conversation, as transcribed by Banier, notebook entry of December 29, 2002; François-Marie Banier faxed letter to Liliane Bettencourt, November 22, 2008, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2. (Documents included in the court record.)

“I was terribly frightened of marriage”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Egoïste, 56.

Liliane ran ahead of everyone else: Liliane Bettencourt conversation, as transcribed in Banier’s confiscated notebook, July 12, 2010; Pierre Bettencourt, Désordres, 190.

Liliane later insisted: Banier notebook, July 12, 2010.

Liliane kept up her ties to Morocco: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 129.

“Of course Bettencourt did political financing”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

“I was happy for him”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Paris Match, September 30, 2010.

“Liliane didn’t want me to enter politics”: André Bettencourt, interview filmed October 10, 1992, included in documentary “Liliane Bettencourt: dans l’intimité d’une milliardaire,” broadcast by France 2, August 7, 2014. This documentary is accessible online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN60_O2QvqE.

The couple made a groundbreaking trip: Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 29.

“He really liked me”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Paris Match, September 30, 2010, 72.

“What could André Bettencourt have done but politics?”: Author interview with source speaking on condition of anonymity.

Former colleagues describe him: Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, interview with author, September 30, 2015; Alain Carignon, interview with author, November 27, 2015.

“I did not adore Giscard”: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 324.

“I could only say bad things about him”: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, comment relayed to author by his office, September 23, 2015.

“After all, André, you are not lacking for bread”: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 327.

It was restored in the 1980s: Claude Herambourg, interview with author, July 16, 2015.

“With the people of the village”: Ibid., for all quotes in this paragraph.

“To tell you the truth”: Jean-Pierre Valériola, telephone interview with author, November 6, 2015.

“One does not become a general”: Eugène Schueller, Théorie du deuxième salaire (Paris, 1939), 23.

even he admitted: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 110.

Schueller’s handpicked choice: François Dalle, L’Aventure L’Oréal (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2001); Jacques Marseille, L’Oréal, 147–57.

Dalle, in turn, lobbied: Péan, Jeunesse, 503–4.

increased annual sales more than fortyfold: Sales increased from 421 million francs in 1966 to 16.4 billion francs in 1985, according to L’Oréal annual reports for those years. (Figures are not publicly available before 1966.)

“On the really important matters”: Jean-Pierre Valériola, telephone interview with author, November 6, 2015.

“She did public relations”: Author interview with source speaking on condition of anonymity, September 9, 2015.

Schueller built them a two-story . . . mansion: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 1, 106. Details about the Bettencourt mansion: “Dans les secrets de la maison Bettencourt,” Capital, September 2010, 86–89; Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 82.

the highest median per capita income: Elodie Buzeaud, “Le revenu des Français, ville par ville,” Cadremploi.fr website, July 18, 2013, accessed online November 1, 2016, https://www.cadremploi.fr/editorial/actualites/actu-emploi/detail/article/salaire-combien-gagne-t-on-ville-par-ville-en-france.html.

At home in Neuilly: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 201–9; Abescat, La saga, 37; Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2015.

“Liliane was a brilliant woman”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

“She was not arrogant”: Pascal Greggory, interview with author, December 12, 2015.

In 1988, he was elected: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 355–64.

joking in his acceptance speech: André Bettencourt, “Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Michel Fare,” November 30, 1988, on the website of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, accessed online on November 17, 2016, http://www.academie-des-beaux-arts.fr/membres/actuel/libres/Bettencourt/Discours_hommage_Fare.htm.

“He was anything but stupid”: Diane de Clairval, interview with author, October 31, 2015.

CHAPTER 3: POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL

“My mother is dead”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 8, 2005, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

Suffered a relapse of the tuberculosis: Judge Michèle Esarté, medical report read in Bordeaux appeals court, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“She had to leave for a sanatorium”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, September 6, 2010.

“a mussel on a rock”: Françoise Meyers, interviewed by Raphaëlle Bacquet, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: ‘Allons-y, mieux vaut tout purger,’” M Le Magazine du Monde, March 10, 2012, 45.

“I think that the relationship”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“manage her hygiene issues”: Alain Caillol, quoted in “En enlevant Empain, on s’est trompé sur toute la ligne,” Le Figaro, January 13, 2012.

“had more means to exert pressure”: Alain Caillol, quoted in “Alain Caillol, l’un des ravisseurs du Baron Empain, se confie à VSD,” VSD, November 24, 2009, accessed online December 11, 2016, http://www.vsd.fr/les-indiscrets/alain-caillol-l-un-des-ravisseurs-du-baron-empain-se-confie-a-vsd-3714.

“La belle Lili had a close call”: Alain Caillol, quoted in Patricia Tourancheau, “Remords postbaron,” Libération, January 14, 2012.

“formed a close-knit family”: Françoise Meyers interview, “Françoise Meyers se confie,” Elle, July 8, 2010.

“I was always very close to my parents”: Françoise Meyers, quoted in Bacquet, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers,” 45.

“It’s a failure with my daughter”: Liliane Bettencourt, quoted in Jean-Marie Pontaut and Pascal Ceaux, “Bettencourt mère et fille: chronique d’une relation houleuse,” L’Express, July 21, 2010, accessed online June 15, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/bettencourt-mere-et-fille-chronique-d-une-relation-houleuse_907417.html.

“I told you she was not happy”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Arnaud Bizot, “Liliane Bettencourt nous ouvre les portes de son coeur,” Paris Match, September 30, 2010, 73.

“She never kisses me”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, December 10, 1997, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“She keeps them on a leash”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, May 31, 1997, Correspondance, vol. 1.

Françoise “has annihilated me”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, July 15, 2000, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“The mother massacred the daughter”: Richard Malka, interview with author, July 9, 2016.

a “conciliator”: André Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 344.

“joyous, docile, and emotive”: Ibid., vol. 1, 132; vol. 2, 344.

Some have speculated: Jean-Michel Normand deposition, November 6, 2012.

“hard to wear and hard to look at”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, July 12, 2000, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“It’s a story of jealousy between women”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, October 8, 2008, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“Music is my oxygen”: Françoise Meyers, interview with Bacquet, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers,” 46.

“From the beginning, our common sensibility”: Arielle Dombasle, interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016. Transcript made available to the author by Gérard Miller.

“I am too eccentric for her”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 17, 2007, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“Françoise was a somber little girl”: Arielle Dombasle, interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016.

Françoise first laid eyes on Jean-Pierre Meyers: Raphaëlle Bacquet and Béatrice Gurrey, “Quand François-Marie Banier tentait une conciliation,” Le Monde, August 30, 2010.

Françoise and Jean-Pierre got to know each other: Ibid.

“was not an easy thing to contemplate”: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 343.

Jean-Pierre Meyers was living with Agnès Greggory: Stéphane Durand-Souffland, “Au procès Bettencourt, le compagnon de François-Marie Banier a adopté une posture détachée,” Le Figaro, May 14, 2016.

“Agnès learned of the [impending] marriage”: Pascal Greggory interview, December 12, 2015.

“I wouldn’t have prevented it”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, May 4, 2001, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“It was a marvelous wedding”: Françoise Meyers interview, Elle, July 8, 2010.

“an affectionate son”: Bettencourt, Souvenirs, vol. 2, 343.

“She always blamed Françoise”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, September 6, 2010.

“He never lost sight of the prize”: Liliane Bettencourt conversation with Patrice de Maistre, recorded November 30, 2009.

“In 50 years, my daughter has never talked”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, October 8, 2008, Correspondance, vol. 2.

five-volume study of the Bible: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Les trompettes de Jéricho: regard sur la Bible: mieux se comprendre entre juifs et catholiques (Paris: L’Oeuvre, 2008).

“I suppose, since I know Françoise”: Bernard-Henri Lévy, “Lectures de Noël: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers et la Bible,” Le Point, December 11, 2008.

Françoise’s other published work: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Les dieux grecs: généalogies (Paris: Christian, 1994).

“Françoise doesn’t like luxury”: Arielle Dombasle, interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016.

“frozen in the 1970s”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 24, 2016.

it is Françoise who opens the door: “Les petits secrets de Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, la future madame L’Oréal,” Capital, November 24, 2014, accessed online June 24, 2015, http://www.capital.fr/enquetes/hommes-et-aaires/les-petits-secrets-de-francoise-bettencourt-meyers-la-future-madame-l-oreal-645533.

actively supports a research institute: Caroline Pigozzi, “La revanche de l’héritière,” Paris Match, September 2, 2010.

Friends describe him in bland terms: David Le Bailly et François Labrouillère, “Affaire Bettencourt. Le discret mari de Françoise Meyers,” Paris Match, June 26, 2011.

“never intervened very directly”: Jean-Pierre Valériola, telephone interview with author, November 6, 2015.

“a prince consort”: Pierre Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

Liliane Bettencourt gifted the bulk: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 161–62; Olivier Metzner, Plainte, December 19, 2007, 3.

the gifted stock was worth some €2.5 billion: Calculation based on stock price data provided by the L’Oréal financial department.

stock dividends that currently average over a million euros a day: François Krug, “Liliane, héritière, 34 millions d’euros par mois,” Le Nouvel Observateur, July 5, 2010, accessed online November 17, 2016, http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2010/07/05/liliane-heritiere-34-millions-deuros-par-mois-157580.

“That’s my margin of freedom”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, October 16, 2002, quoted in Pierre Cornut-Gentille and Laurent Merlet, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe [brief filed on Banier’s behalf], January 26, 2015, 6.

“If you had made this donation”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, July 19, 1996, Correspondance, vol. 1.

it was surprising to publicist Seth Goldschlager: Seth Goldschlager, interview with author, November 13, 2015.

CHAPTER 4: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

“The most important thing”: François-Marie Banier, interview with Michel Guerrin, “Il y a toujours eu du vacarme derrière moi,” Le Monde, September 12, 2009, 21.

François-Marie Michel Banier was born: Biographical details from François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015. Unless otherwise indicated, all Banier quotes in this chapter are from this interview.

A childhood friend: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“He practically lived at our house”: Douce de Andia, quoted in Marie-Dominique Lelièvre, “Le bouquet de Narcisse,” Libération, August 4, 1997.

Banier has undergone three psychoanalyses: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, October 25, 2016.

“François-Marie is someone who has a desire to be loved”: Pascal Greggory, interview with author, December 12, 2015.

“believed in nothing”: Banier, quoted in Amy Fine Collins, “Enfant Terrible,” Vanity Fair, December 2006, accessed online February 27, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2006/12/enfant-terrible-200612.

“I remember one time”: Gilles Brücker, quoted in Ibid.

“When he comes here”: Jean-Michel Ribes, interview with author, November 18, 2015.

“I called him up”: François Bonduel, telephone interview with author, November 25, 2015.

“Young man, your line is too large” . . . “His suite was always full”: Banier, quoted in Collins, “Enfant Terrible.”

Banier quit school at seventeen: François-Marie Banier, telephone interview with author, August 9, 2016.

“They were one personality split”: Valérie Lalonde, quoted in Collins, “Enfant Terrible.”

Marie-Laure invited Banier to lunch: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“Monsieur Pélissier arrived”: François-Marie Banier, Les résidences secondaires, ou La vie distraite (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 11.

“the exaltation caused by the sudden possession”: Banier, Les résidences, 20.

“You represented a lot of things”: Ibid., 112.

press magnates Hélène Lazareff: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

Banier has always scoffed at this story: Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 101; François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“without ambiguity”: Banier testimony, January 28, 2015, Tribunal correctionnel de Bordeaux, Note d’audience, 26.

“I have absolutely no memory of that”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Arnaud Bizot, “Liliane Bettencourt nous ouvre les portes de son coeur,” Paris Match, September 39, 2010, 72.

Banier met him by chance one night in 1968: Louis Aragon, “Un inconnu nommé Banier,” Lettres françaises, June 2, 1971, 5; François-Marie Banier, interviews with author September 28, 2015, and December 1, 2015.

“[Banier] is the craziest”: Aragon, “Un inconnu nommé Banier,” 6.

“exaggerated by older admirers”: Quoted in Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 103.

“It presented me as a dandy”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, December 1, 2015.

“So tell me, joker, is it true”: Nicole Wisniak, quoted in Jean-Marc Roberts, François-Marie (Paris: Gallimard, 2011), 62.

She reportedly put 350,000 francs: Jérôme Dupuis, Boris Thiolet, and Gilles Gaetner, “François-Marie Banier: un ami qui vous veut du bien,” L’Express, January 16, 2009; Vincent, Le roman vrai, 104.

Among the two hundred guests: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, November 3, 2016.

“I’m not sure that the theater”: Jean-Michel Ribes, interview with author, November 18, 2015.

“We danced together”: Pascal Greggory, conversation with author, December 6, 2015.

“It was all done in an amicable way”: Ibid.

“In the homosexual milieu”: Pascal Greggory, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

After one dispute: Cited in Vincent, Le roman vrai, 104.

he allegedly snatched her wig: Christophe d’Antonio, La lady et le dandy (Paris: Éditions Jacob-Duvernet, 2010), 30.

When Castaing refused to let him in: Ibid.

“We were two monsters”: Banier, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 59.

Banier sued for defamation: Laurent Merlet (Banier’s lawyer), interview with author, August 3, 2015.

“Madeleine was very stingy”: Pascal Greggory, conversation with author, December 6, 2015.

“You’re cheeky, but it’s good”: Quoted in François-Marie Banier (Paris: Gallimard, 2003), 320.

“the dwarf Bergé”: Banier notebook, December 29, 2002.

“You think he sucks well?” . . . “He wanted to be saucy”: Pierre Bergé, Les jours s’en vont, je demeure (Paris: Gallimard, 2003), quoted in Vincent, Le roman vrai, 107.

“main quality is to seduce old people”: Bergé, Les jours, quoted in Michel Guerrin, “Francois-marie Banier le mauvais génie,” M Le Magazine du Monde, October 16, 2010.

“a tour de force of marketing”: Alicia Drake, The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), 251.

Banier named Dior’s Poison: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, October 25, 2016.

in 1987 Banier was able to buy: Ibid.; Banier enquête patrimoniale, June 4, 2009, in investigative dossier.

“The fashion world exploded at this time”: Judy Fayard, interview with author, October 3, 2015.

published a photo book on Le Palace: Guy Marineau and Jean Rouzaud, Le Palace: Remember (Paris: Hoëbeke, 2005).

“Banier had become excellent in the art of creating friendships”: Guy Marineau, email to author, October 26, 2015.

didn’t really like hanging out in “homo places”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, October 26, 2015.

“an absolute nonconformist”: Arielle Dombasle, quoted in Michel Guerrin, “François-Marie Banier le mauvais génie,” M Le Magazine du Monde, October 16, 2010.

“extraordinary personage she was” for him: François-Marie Banier, Balthazar, fils de famille (Paris: Gallimard, 1985), 167.

“she’s the one who pays”: Ibid., 169.

“I saw in her falsely distracted eyes”: Ibid., 222; quoted in Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles [brief filed on behalf of Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers], January 2015, 38.

“part of the woodwork”: Christianne Dufour, interview with author, September 29, 2015.

“Mitterrand was amused by him”: Hubert Védrine, interview with author, September 21, 2015.

Reportedly at Mitterrand’s urging: Michel Guerrin, “François-Marie Banier le mauvais génie,” M Magazine du Monde, October 16, 2010; Guy Marineau, email to author, October 26, 2015.

landed a rare interview: Liliane Bettencourt, “A partir d’un certain Chiffre, les gens Déraillent,” Egoïste, no. 10 (1987), 55–57.

“The first time I saw you”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, October 11, 1994, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 1.

CHAPTER 5: SUCH GOOD FRIENDS

“With you, I am like a mother, a lover”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 20, 2007, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

“good thing I never intended”: Liliane Bettencourt, recording of September 7, 2009.

Liliane longed for more physical closeness: Banier notebook, December 29, 2002.

“She fell in love with François-Marie . . . She was fascinated by him”: Lucienne de Rozier depositions, September 6, 2010, and February 13, 2008.

“not only in love with Banier”: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“never in love”: François-Marie Banier trial testimony, February 3, 2015, Note d’audience [transcript of Banier’s first trial], 87.

“my beautiful child”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, May 2006, Correspondance, vol. 2.

was fed a diet of fresh fish: Olivier Bouchara and Olivier Druin, “Dans les secrets de la maison Bettencourt,” Capital, September 2010, 88.

“ma petite chérie”: François-Marie Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, September 29, 2006, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“I kiss you tenderly”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 11, 1995, Ibid., vol. 1.

“That’s when we realized”: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony before the Bordeaux appeals court, May 18, 2016, Procès verbal d’audition de témoin, 3.

“Liliane was rich”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 9, 2015.

“grave depression”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, February 23, 2008.

“My health was bad for ten years”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, February 7, 1995, Correspondance, vol 1.

“he renovated me”: Liliane Bettencourt conversation with Patrice de Maistre, recording of September 7, 2009.

“You do not raise your voice at my table”: André Bettencourt, quoted in Banier notebook entry of March 18, 2007.

attended the International Film Festival: Claire Thibout depostion, September 18, 2008, 2.

danced on the famous Piazza San Marco: Monique de Libouton deposition, September 6, 2010.

“She wore a bright orange scarf”: Diane von Furstenberg, interview with author, December 23, 2015.

Banier insists that Liliane was not a stand-in mother: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“Through me there was a vision”: Ibid.

“You have two people who meet”: Diane von Furstenberg, interview with author, December 23, 2015.

She came two or three times a month: Banier testimony before Bordeaux appeals court, May 11, 2016, from author’s notes.

bread and cheese that she always brought: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, June 14, 2016.

“François-Marie, you need more space”: Dialogue as recounted by Banier in interview with Christophe Barbier and Jean-Marie Pontaut, “La générosité de Liliane Bettencourt est voulue,” L’Express, July 14–20, 2010, 57.

Good as her word: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 142; Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 82.

Between 1994 and 1999: Vincent, Le roman vrai, 152.

she accompanied Banier to the offices of her notary: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, November 3, 2016.

“I have decided to give you the paintings”: Barbier and Pontaut, “La générosité.”

The collection, which included canvases by Picasso: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel [court ruling in Banier’s initial trial], May 28, 2015, 92; Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 161.

currently estimated at €90 million: Laurent Merlet, conversation with author, January 17, 2017.

“She knew exactly what she wanted”: Jean-Michel Normand deposition, November 6, 2012.

“token of my gratitude”: Quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 161.

she named Banier in her will as the beneficiary: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 4.

he purchased four apartments: Banier enquête patrimoniale, June 4, 2009.

Liliane cashed in a life-insurance contract: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 15.

He immediately put the funds: Ibid., 108–9.

he drew large sums: Banier deposition, January 30, 2013.

Liliane arranged for L’Oréal to grant two generous contracts: Zineb Dryef and François Krug, “Affaire Bettencourt: comment L’Oréal finance Banier,” Rue89, September 23, 2010, accessed online March 3, 2015, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-nos-vies-connectees/20100723.RUE7695/affaire-bettencourt-comment-l-oreal-finance-banier.html.

were eventually worth €710,000: Ibid.

“I make money for Liliane”: Owen-Jones, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 192; Jean-Michel Normand deposition, February 21, 2008.

“I am well aware”: Banier to Lindsay Owen-Jones, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 168.

“L’Oréal could be something other”: Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 69.

“What I want is for you to be known”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 23, 1996, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“we” are putting on an exhibition: Louis Abel (Madame Bettencourt’s former osteopath) deposition, March 24, 2009.

“She was intelligent enough to realize”: Claude Delay Tubiana, interview with author, September 10, 2015.

“She’s a woman who imposes”: Banier testimony, quoted in Michel Deléan, “Procès Bettencourt: la faute de Liliane,” Mediapart, February 3, 2015, accessed online October 8, 2016, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/030215/proces-bettencourt-la-faute-de-liliane.

“It is Madame Bettencourt who takes the lead”: Jean-Michel Normand deposition, February 21, 2008.

“Each one got what they needed”: Ibid.

described her as “stingy”: Monique de Libouton deposition, September 15, 2010.

“Liliane was quite miserly”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, September 6, 2010.

“detests overpaying”: Liliane Bettencourt interview, Egoïste, no. 10 (1987).

“I don’t like blandness”: Ibid.

“Haut les cœurs”: Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, September 17, 2006; May 30, 2007.

“It’s obvious that you’re part crazy”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 15, 2003, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“I spoke to François-Marie as I spoke to my father”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, May 23, 2003, cited in Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions, 14.

“I got along very well with my mother”: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 61–62.

“There was no incident!”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

He says he got along fine: Details of 1993 Arcouest luncheon from Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 69–70.

The two first crossed paths in 1981: Arielle Dombasle, interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016.

She took more notice of him when he showed up: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 60.

Françoise and Banier met again: Ibid.

the heiress would rise at seven a.m.: Louis Abel (Liliane’s former osteopath) deposition, March 24, 2009; details on her daily schedule in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 42–43; Bouchara and Drouin, “Dans les secrets,” 88.

One thing Liliane never wore was perfume: Bouchara and Drouin, “Dans les secrets,” 86; Banier notebook entry of December 29, 2002.

no more than forty-five minutes: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“I visited her four times a month”: Banier testimony before Bordeaux appeals court, May 11, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“Claire is someone who can be off-putting”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“never laughed so much”: Thibout, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 200.

“They would go to restaurants”: Claire Thibout, interviewed on “Liliane Bettencourt: dans l’intimité d’une milliardaire,” Complément d’enquête, France 2, broadcast November 17, 2013.

According to official court records: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 91.

“What’s this all about?”: Dialogue as recounted by Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“Monsieur Bettencourt did not know everything”: Chantal Trovel testimony, February 4, 2015, Note d’audience, 105.

“wasn’t he himself supported”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

Claire telephoned Banier: Dialogue and scene as recounted in Banier’s notebook, December 29, 2002. Thibout also testified on this encounter, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 136.

The heiress confessed she’d made a mistake: Claire Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 136.

she changed her mind again: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 95.

the most exotic was the Seychelles island of d’Arros: Hervé Gattegno, “L’île maudite des Bettencourt,” Vanity Fair (French edition), February 9, 2015, accessed online May 29, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/ile-darros-paradis-maudit/1641.

Françoise and her family were never once invited: Jean-Pierre Meyers trial testimony, Procès verbal d’audition de témoin, May 18, 2016, 4.

“In no case did she want the island to go to her daughter”: Fabrice Goguel, quoted in Gattegno, “L’île maudite des Bettencourt.”

Goguel created a Lichtenstein-based foundation: Ibid.

finally sold in 2011: Ibid.

“I detest this island”: Banier deposition, July 16, 2010.

CHAPTER 6: DARK ROOTS

Seth Goldschlager was awakened: Quotes and scene description from Seth Goldschlager, interview with author, November 13, 2015.

It all started in September 1987: Details on Paravision and the Frydman-Dalle-L’Oréal dispute from Jacques Marseille, L’Oréal, 1909–2009 (Paris: Perrin, 2009), 255–65; Ian Hamel, Les Bettencourt: derniers secrets (Paris: l’Archipel, 2013), 251–62; Bruno Abescat, La saga des Bettencourt (Paris: Plon, 2010), 98–100.

“the personification of horror”: Jean Frydman, quoted in “La Guerre de l’ombre,” Le Point, May 13, 1991.

perpetrator of some of the group’s bloodiest terror attacks: Michel Bar-Zohar, Une histoire sans fard: L’Oréal, des années sombres au boycott arabe (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 50–51.

served as an officer in his collaborationist groups: Marseille, L’Oréal, 261; Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 255–57.

Corrèze took part in the expropriation of Jewish properties: Annie Lacroix-Riz, Les élites françaises entre 1940 et 1944 (Paris: Armand Colin, 2016), 177–78.

He swore allegiance to Hitler: Abescat, La saga, 101.

“Before we knew it”: Seth Goldschlager, interview with author, November 13, 2015.

Frydman appeared on a popular French TV show: Le Droit de savoir, TF1, May 1991, cited in Abescat, La saga, 104.

One especially despicable character: Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 264–65.

“systematically sheltered criminals”: Jean Frydman, quoted in Ibid., 266.

“The Cagoule were the storm troopers”: Author interview with source requesting anonymity.

“When the affair exploded, he was stunned”: Jean-Pierre Valériola, telephone interview with author, November 6, 2015.

Owen-Jones was a wunderkind: Marseille, L’Oréal, 245–51.

“the booster of sales”: Dalle, quoted in Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 117.

“a bundle of energy”: Seth Goldschlager, interview with author, November 13, 2015.

“no longer played any operational role”: Abescat, La saga, 103.

“the slightest attack against the Jews”: Jacques Corrèze, quoted in Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 138.

“man with no character”: Liliane Bettencourt, quoted in Ibid., 138.

“I cannot change what happened”: Corrèze, quoted in Vincent, Le roman vrai, 121.

Aided by Klarsfeld: Hamel, Les Bettencourt, 133; Christophe d’Antonio, La Lady et le dandy (Paris: Éditions Jacob-Duvernet, 2010), 92.

Le Monde published a full page on its revelations: Edwy Plenel, “L’affaire L’Oréal se transforme en affaire Bettencourt,” Le Monde, February 12, 1995.

she had invited Banier and d’Orgeval: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 146–47; Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 26, 1998, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 1.

Liliane was furious: Banier notebook, March 14, 2010.

“apologies” . . . “youthful error”: André Bettencourt, interview with Stéphane Durand-Souffland and Jean-Alphonse Richard, “André Bettencourt: Je ne suis pas antisémite,” Le Figaro, February 15, 1995.

“After fifty years of existence”: André Bettencourt, quoted in Abescat, La saga, 119.

Serge Klarsfeld flew to New York: Edwy Plenel, “M. Klarsfeld a saisi les autorités américaines des révélations sur le passé de M. Bettencourt,” Le Monde, February 14, 1995.

the US Commerce Department fined L’Oréal: Pierre Angel Gay, “Les États-Unis condamnent L’Oréal à une amende pour le boycottage d’Israël,” Le Monde, August 31, 1995.

“available evidence did not support”: Justice Department spokesman’s email to author, September 2, 2015.

a scathing review: Stéphanie Marteau, “André Bettencourt: mémoires d’un prince consort,” M Magazine du Monde, May 3, 2013, accessed online September 23, 2015, http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/05/03/memoires-d-un-prince-consort_3169507_3224.html.

“In the Catholicism of my childhood”: André Bettencourt, Souvenirs (Paris, 1999), vol. 1, 63.

“a very violent episode for my family”: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony before the Bordeaux appeals court, May 18, 2016, Procès verbal d’audition de témoin, 2.

CHAPTER 7: A GENEROUS MAN

“I hope your future wife”: Victor Bettencourt, quoted in André Bettencourt, Souvenirs (Paris, 1999), vol. 1, 111.

Thierry Coulon, the Bettencourts’ chef: Thierry Coulon deposition, August 30, 2010.

Enrico Vaccaro . . . to whom she bequeathed: “Thomas, le chien de Liliane Bettencourt,” Nouvel Observateur, May 9, 2011, accessed online November 30, 2016, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/societe/20110508.OBS2642/thomas-le-chien-de-liliane-bettencourt.html.

Born in the central French city of Châteauroux: Hervé Gattegno, “Le majordome qui a fait trembler Sarkozy,” Vanity Fair (French edition) website, June 26, 2014, accessed online June 1, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/exclusif-a aire-bettencourt-le-majordome-bonnefoy-a-pose-un-dictaphone/14593. This is my source for all quotes and details in this chapter regarding Bonnefoy, unless otherwise specified.

“I think André was seduced”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2015.

It was a large room, bathed in light: Details from Gattegno, Vanity Fair; Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 11, 20; and photographs made available to author by Bruno Mouron, December 22, 2016.

Among the bric-a-brac, one object stood out: Olivier Bouchara and Olivier Druin, “Dans les secrets de la maison Bettencourt,” Capital, September 2010, 86.

“humoristic gift, an allusion to their vigor”: “La vérité sur la sculpture coquine de Liliane Bettencourt,” Capital, September 2, 2010, accessed online July 4, 2015, http://www.capital.fr/a-la-une/actualites/la-verite-sur-la-sculpture-coquine-de-liliane-bettencourt-526854.

It was Claire who made regular runs to the BNP bank: Claire Thibout deposition, July 5, 2010.

“I’ve been drained dry”: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 130.

“He had always financed the right”: Claire Thibout, quoted in Ibid., 130.

“My father was already doing it before I was married”: Liliane Bettencourt, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 286.

Alain Juppé was convicted: Gilles Gaetner and Jean-Marie Pontaut, “L’Affaire Juppé,” L’Express, February 2, 2004, accessed online August 1, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/informations/l-affaire-juppe_654940.html.

CHAPTER 8: THE CHRISTMAS VISITOR

A man in a tan trench coat: Details from Pierre Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“It was a modern painting”: Ibid.

“Please show him all the documents”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, June 24, 2002.

When Castres pored over the papers: Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“Madame, this is madness”: Castres Saint Martin, quoted in Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 173.

“She gave me her permission”: Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“You’re mad to seek such sums from Liliane”: Dialogue as recounted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 171–72.

“He was trembling with rage as he spoke”: Nicole Gilbert attestation of December 27, 2002, cited in Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 8.

He was sure that Castres had been sent by Françoise: Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 77, 80.

“Castres told you he was linked with the Chapon”: Liliane Bettencourt fax to François-Marie Banier, December 25, 2002, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 1.

“This incident with Castres drove me mad”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

Banier was tempted to file a suit: Banier trial testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 76, 80.

“the affection that I have”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, February 10, 2003, cited in Cornut-Gentille and Merlet, Conclusions, 10.

“My dear François-Marie, I am leaving a considerable fortune”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 175.

hire a lawyer to “secure” the donations: Laurent Merlet plea at Bordeaux appeal trial, May 24, 2016, from author’s notes.

“[Banier] had told Madame Bettencourt”: Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“The real reason behind the suit”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, December 1, 2015.

“He didn’t realize the risk”: Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, Septemer 22, 2015.

CHAPTER 9: THE AMBITIOUS MONSIEUR SARKOZY

“ambition was a little engine”: William Herndon, Herndon’s Lincoln, the True Story of a Great Life (Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Company, 1889).

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant: Biographical details from an undated article on Sarkozy on the Politique.net website, accessed online November 22, 2016, http://www.politique.net/nicolas-sarkozy.htm.

working as an ice-cream vendor: Ian Hamel, Sarko & cie (Paris: Archipel, 2011), 4.

he outmaneuvered the Gaullist heavyweight Charles Pasqua: Politique.net, http://www.politique.net/nicolas-sarkozy.htm.

At one dinner at chez Bettencourt: Sarkozy deposition, March 21, 2013, reprinted on Vanity Fair (French edition) website, March 21, 2013, accessed online May 29, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/pv-audition-sarkozy-affaire-bettencourt-herzog-lantuas-youpatchou/122.

Liliane was put off: Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 286.

A former financial consultant: Éric Woerth, Dans la tourmente (Paris: Plon, 2011), 22–27.

Woerth organized an elite group: Raphaëlle Bacquet and Pascale Robert-Diard, “Les riches heures de l’affaire Bettencourt,” Le Monde Mensuel, August 2010, 34; Fabrice Arfi, Fabrice Lhomme, with staff of Mediapart, L’Affaire Bettencourt: un scandale d’état (Paris: Don Quichotte, 2010), 139–50.

the Sarkozy campaign received €9,125,105: Arfi and Lhomme, L’Affaire Bettencourt, 141.

A descendant of Joseph de Maistre: Biographical details on de Maistre from Mélanie Delattre, “La face cachée de Patrice de Maistre,” Le Point, July 1, 2010, 52; Nicolas Cori, “Amateur de chasse et de sloop,” Libération, March 24, 2012.

€30 million stake in Bernie Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme: “Fraude Madoff: Maistre entendu comme témoin,” Challenges, September 10, 2010, accessed online September 10, 2010, http://www.challenges.fr/monde/20100910.CHA0651/fraude-madoff-maistre-entendu-comme-temoin.html; Pierre Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“Count Patrice de Maistre”: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 219.

African network: François Krug, “Affaire Bettencourt-Woerth: les secrets de Patrice de Maistre,” Rue89/Obs, November 24, 2010, accessed online October 20, 2015, http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2010/11/24/a aire-bettencourt-woerth-les-secrets-de-patrice-de-maistre-176081.

“With high-placed people”: Author interview with source requesting anonymity.

de Maistre walked right past André: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“Patrice de Maistre quickly attracted notice”: Woerth, Tourmente, 118–19.

André Bettencourt had asked him: Patrice de Maistre, interview with Laurent Valdiguié, “Il faut que tout cela s’arrête!” Journal du Dimanche, July 25, 2010, 2.

they legally gave €30,000 to the campaign: Ibid.

Éric Woerth wrote personally to candidate Sarkozy: “De nouveaux documents embarrassants pour Eric Woerth,” Le Monde, August 31, 2010, accessed online April 27, 2016, http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2010/08/31/une-lettre-qui-contredit-les-declarations-d-eric-woerth_1404753_3224.html.

He celebrated his victory with a gala dinner: Michel Pinçon and Monique Pinçon-Charlot, Le président des riches (Paris: Éditions de la Découverte), 15–19.

ex-girlfriend of Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton: Maureen Orth, “Paris Match,” Vanity Fair, July 28, 2008, accessed online September 12, 2016, http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/09/bruni200809.

“Look at my watch”: Michel Wieviorka, interview with author, November 6, 2015.

Carla, though, reinforced the image: J.M., “Carla Bruni obsédée par l’argent?” Closer, September 27, 2016, http://www.closermag.fr/article/carla-bruni-obsedee-par-l-argent-l-ex-premiere-dame-dans-le-viseur-de-l-ancien-conseiller-de-nicolas-sarkozy-672075.

de Maistre hired Woerth’s wife: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 292.

CHAPTER 10: THE WHISTLE-BLOWER

“But one can’t be shaken up all the time”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 20, 2006, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

She was gripped by anxiety: Ibid.

the couple remained sprawled on the floor: Chantal Trovel deposition, January 24, 2008.

“She thought she was going to die”: Françoise Mauclère deposition, March 31, 2010.

Rushed back to Paris: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony, Procès verbal d’audition de témoin, May 18, 2016, 4.

“When are we going back to Neuilly?”: Christiane Djenane deposition, February 7, 2008, cited in Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 78.

called the Bettencourt home at eight a.m.: Details and dialogue from Banier notebook entry of February 17, 2008; Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 71.

Banier and Brücker had known each other: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

At Banier’s urging: All details in this paragraph from Brücker interview with author, July 19, 2016, and Brücker deposition, July 29, 2010.

“It was totally abnormal”: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“light coma” and “severe dehydration”: Patrick de Rohan Chabot deposition, January 31, 2008, cited in Cornut-Gentille and Merlet, Conclusions, 78.

too heavily dosed for a woman of her age: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“Madame Meyers forbids Monsieur Banier”: Martin d’Orgeval testimony, May 13, 1996, from author’s trial notes.

“I hope there’s no checkbook in her purse”: Banier testimony, May 11, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

said she was “surprised” to find Vaccaro: Françoise Meyers deposition, February 1, 2010.

“Come sit next to me”: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“She was transformed”: Ibid.

“Christiane has betrayed me”: Banier testimony, May 11, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

had already been attributed to Banier: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 93–94.

“in no case to my address in Neuilly”: Liliane Bettencourt to Arcalis insurance company, September 14, 2007, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 94.

“going through a phase of dementia”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, February 13, 2008.

“She asked me what country she was in”: Henriette Youpatchou deposition, October 24, 2011.

found her “shocked”: Bruno Lantuas deposition, February 13, 2008.

she gave €500,000 to the daughter: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 101.

she declared an additional €33,519,852: Ibid., 98.

she was gifting him a painting by Max Ernst: Ibid., 112.

“I am in such a state of rage”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, November 28, 2006, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“Weeks, perhaps months”: Françoise Meyers deposition, February 1, 2008.

In April 2007, Françoise had an accident: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony, May 18, 2016, 4.

blamed Banier for intentionally taking: Françoise Meyers to Liliane Bettencourt, January 14, 2008. Copy provided by Meyers’s attorney Nicolas Huc-Morel.

Banier and d’Orgeval claimed: Banier testimony, May 11, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“You stay here if you want”: Ibid., also Martin d’Orgeval testimony, May 13, 2016, from author’s notes.

set back her recovery: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January 2015, 70.

call her black female nurse “André”: Henriette Youpatchou deposition, October 24, 2011.

cut up food in the dog’s bowl: Pascal Bonnefoy deposition, July 23, 2010.

turned violently against a dinner guest: Judgment correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 58, 63.

kept up a busy schedule of meetings: Liliane Bettencourt’s confiscated appointment books, included in investigative file.

met at least once a month with Lindsay Owen-Jones: Cornut-Gentille and Merlet, Conclusions, January–February 2015, 68–69.

her husband deferred to her decisions: Ibid., 85–86.

as many as fifty-six pills a day: Doreen Carvajal, “In Case of L’Oréal Heiress, a Private World of Wealth Becomes Public,” New York Times, February 25, 2015.

the somnifer Stilnox and the tranquilizer Lexomil: Enrico Vaccaro deposition, March 24, 2009.

“a certain medical nomadism”: Christian de Jaeger, cited in Dossier Liliane Bettencourt [medical experts’ report], September 16, 2011.

fifty-seven different doctors: Liliane Bettencourt’s confiscated address books, included in investigative file.

Banier denies claims by some: Banier deposition, January 26, 2012.

“I saw that there were many doctors”: Gilles Brücker, interview with author, July 19, 2016.

“How’s it going, Claire?”: Dialogue as recounted in Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 179. Françoise’s version of this exchange appears in her typed summary of events leading up to the suit, included in investigative file. Claire Thibout’s version appears in her deposition of July 5, 2010.

“I told her everything”: Claire Thibout, interviewed in documentary “Liliane Bettencourt: dans l’intimité d’une milliardaire,” Complément d’enquête, France 2, broadcast November 17, 2013.

One episode that had especially shaken Claire: Antoine Gillot, interviews with author July 21, 2010, and August 4, 2015.

Claire claimed that Banier was behind this: Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, January 2015, 53.

She was so stressed: Ibid.

Claire went to the bank: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“It was Ali Baba’s cave”: Ibid.

“You have absolutely no right to do that”: Jean-Michel Normand deposition, November 6, 2012; also Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, 53.

“Very well. I’ll throw them out the window”: François-Marie Banier, quoted in Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 229.

“Would you be willing to testify”: Françoise Meyers, quoted in Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“What is going on there is not at all normal”: Ibid.

Claire had already worked it out: Ibid.

“We can imagine the delicate situation”: Françoise Meyers to Claire Thibout, November 11, 2007, included in investigative file.

“It was unthinkable for me not to respect”: Françoise Meyers deposition, July 20, 2010, quoted in Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme, with staff of Mediapart, L’Affaire Bettencourt: un scandale d’état (Paris: Don Quichotte, 2010), 79.

she had received a donation of €50,000: Claire Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 133.

“François-Marie, you are going to laugh”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 20, 2006.

“As agreed, I am sending”: Thibout to Jean-Michel Normand, November 17, 2006, quoted in Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 247.

“He told me Madame Bettencourt wanted”: Claire Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 133.

“Let’s say, for the sake of argument”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

Castres Saint Martin had told André as early as 2004: Castres Saint Martin, interview with author, September 22, 2015.

“I didn’t realize it was so terrible”: André Bettencourt, as quoted by Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“My wife is sick”: Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 263.

“Ah, the bastard!”: Chantal Trovel, quoted in Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, 76.

“Banier is a crook”: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 62.

“he did not react in front of the others”: Pascal Bonnefoy, quoted in Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, 76.

“I think he sensed the problem”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Arnaud Bizot, “Liliane Bettencourt nous ouvre les portes de son cœur,” Paris Match, September 30, 2010, 73.

“It’s shameful to make the dead speak”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“If he had something to say”: Ibid.; Banier email to author, December 12, 2016. Banier said essentially the same thing in court on January 28, 2015, Note d’audience, 30.

Pascal Bonnefoy took his leave of André: Hervé Gattegno, “Le majordome qui a fait trembler Sarkozy,” Vanity Fair (French edition), June 26, 2014.

It was Martin d’Orgeval who got: Martin d’Orgeval testimony, May 13, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“Françoise has to see his body”: Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s notes.

Françoise and her mother clashed over the organization: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 63.

“As long as Papa was alive”: Dialogue as recounted by Pascal Bonnefoy to Gattegno, “Le majordome.”

“The casket was in Monsieur’s office”: Pascal Bonnefoy, conversation with author, November 4, 2015.

“She didn’t understand what was going on”: Olivier Pelat, conversation with author, November 4, 2015.

“she didn’t understand why she went to the church”: Jean-Victor Meyers, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 65.

The funeral was held in Neuilly’s Saint-Pierre Church: Details of funeral service from Etchegoin, Milliard de secrets, 17–19, and accounts of various attendees.

he dined with Liliane beforehand: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, December 6, 2015.

“Liliane took off her wedding ring”: Monique de Libouton, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 65.

but admits to giving Liliane an expensive diamond ring: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, July 18, 2016.

“I wanted to preserve the presence of Monsieur”: Pascal Bonnefoy testimony, November 3, 2015, from author’s trial notes.

“Concerning the adoption”: Dominique Gaspard, attestation included in Françoise Meyers’s original complaint, December 19, 2007.

“a dam that collapsed”: Françoise Meyers, interviewed by Cyrille Louis, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: l’interview vérité,” Le Figaro, June 25, 2010, accessed online August 2, 2010, http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2010/06/24/01016-20100624ARTFIG00581-francoise-bettencourt-l-interview-verite.php.

“I never wanted to adopt a son”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Michel Deléan, “Liliane Bettencourt: ‘Je n’ai plus envie de voir ma fille,’” Journal du Dimanche, December 21, 2008.

“There were six lawyers”: Lucienne de Rozier deposition, quoted in Laurent Valdiguié, “L’autre affaire Bettencourt qui menace Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt,” Journal du Dimanche, May 8, 2016.

CHAPTER 11: THE OPENING SALVO

Philippe Courroye received a phone call: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

had risen to prominence: Stéphane Arteta, “Olivier Metzner, le roi de la place,” Nouvel Observateur, March 17, 2013, accessed online September 15, 2015, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/justice/20130317.OBS2177/olivier-metzner-le-roi-de-la-place.html.

he had defended rock singer Bertrand Cantat: Flore Galaud, “Kiejman et Metzner: le duel féroce de deux ténors,” Le Figaro, June 30, 2010, accessed online July 1, 2010, http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2010/06/30/01016-20100630ARTFIG00746-kiejman-vs-metzner-le-duel-feroce-de-deux-tenors.php.

“The hysterical fury of women”: Georges Kiejman, quoted in Bastien Bonnefous, “Kiejman—Metzner, poings de droit,” Slate (French edition), September 14, 2010, accessed online September 16, 2010, http://www.slate.fr/story/27227/bettencourt-kiejman-metzner-poings-de-droit.

“he left the land of human beings”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

he was gay himself: Vincent Monnier, “Olivier Metzner, histoire d’un héritage impossible,” Nouvel Observateur, April 20, 2014, accessed online May 14, 2015, http://o.nouvelobs.com/people/20140418.OBS4484/olivier-metzner-histoire-d-un-heritage-impossible.html.

the Bettencourt Affair as his last great case: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

the juge d’instruction has extensive powers: Guillaume Perrault, “Le juge d’instruction, l’homme le plus puissant de France,” Le Figaro, March 13, 2014.

Courroye had been an aggressive investigator: François Koch, Jean-Marie Pontaut, et al., “Philippe Courroye, un procureur très en cour,” L’Express, November 12, 2009, accessed online August 28, 2015, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/philippe-courroye-un-procureur-tres-en-cour_827998.html.

personal friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Philippe Courroye: ‘Nos relations ne sont pas amicales, mais personnelles,’” Le Monde, October 12, 2012.

“knowingly abused the state of weakness”: Olivier Metzner, Plainte, December 19, 2007, 2.

his own enquête préliminaire: Gérard Davet, “L’autodéfense du procureur,” Le Monde, July 13, 2010, 3.

he turned to the brigade financière: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Metzner’s dossier was “well supported”: Ibid.

was more than €500 million: Metzner, Plainte, 6.

“Banier harassed Madame Bettencourt”: Dominique Gaspard attestation, included with Metzner’s complaint of December 19, 2007, Certificats et attestations, 18–25.

“That’s much too much!”: Henriette Youpatchou attestation, included in Ibid., 5–10. Parentheses in the original.

“At the end of 2005, Monsieur Banier telephoned”: Claire Thibout attestation, included in Ibid., 12–16.

“First, we had to verify”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Owen-Jones proposed for Liliane to cede: Lindsay Owen-Jones to Liliane Bettencourt, November 19, 2007, cited in Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions au fond aux fins de relaxe, May 10, 2016, 101; Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

“life expectancy was not more than five years”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, November 15, 2005, cited in Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions, January 26, 2015, 5.

“he was merely awaiting my death”: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Michel Normand, June 26, 1999. Copy provided to the author by Georges Kiejman.

she decided to change her will: Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 84; Merlet interview with author, August 3, 2015.

Liliane had already granted: Procès verbal de synthèse, April 16, 2008, 2.

she officially named Banier as the heir: Testament authentique de Liliane Bettencourt, December 11, 2007, included in investigative file.

making the photographer the owner of 1.2 percent of the firm: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January–February 2015, 35, 66; Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

Not to mention the buildings: Olivier Metzner, interview with author, July 20, 2010; Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 105.

“an act of pure violence”: Jean-Michel Normand testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 84.

“I was gutted”: Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 84.

“I’m not crazy”: Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

jurists later told investigators: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 103–4.

“never understood that I was to be [Liliane’s] heir”: Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“I know ahead of time”: Françoise Meyers to Liliane Bettencourt, January 14, 2008. Copy provided to author by Nicolas Huc-Morel.

“Your letter is absurd”: Liliane Bettencourt to Françoise Meyers, January 16, 2008, cited in Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires, January 26, 2015, 16.

“I really cannot digest your letter”: Liliane Bettencourt to Françoise Meyers, January 18, 2008, cited in Ibid., 16.

“It’s thanks to him”: Liliane Bettencourt to Françoise Meyers, February 2008, quoted in Béatrice Gurrey, “Cette lettre est un dernier avertissement,” Le Monde, December 20, 2008.

“put an end to this procedure”: Liliane Bettencourt to Procureur de la République [Courroye], January 30, 2008.

“I turned white as death”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, June 14, 2016; Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 86.

“It’s a story of mother-daughter jealousy”: Martin d’Orgeval journal, January 17, 2008, included in investigative file.

“It was horrible”: Martin d’Orgeval, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

the photographer had a complete record: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 81.

claimed that Liliane had insisted: Banier testimony, May 11, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“I didn’t want my action to further weaken”: Françoise Meyers deposition, February 1, 2008.

“a professional of manipulation”: Ibid.

Other employees, however: Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions, May 10, 2016, 55–56.

“This was an elderly person”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

“I have known Monsieur François-Marie Banier for twenty-five years”: Liliane Bettencourt deposition, May 13, 2008, cited in Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions, January–February 2015, 2.

she didn’t “want to see a doctor”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

“after her hospitalization”: Youpatchou attestation, included with Metzner’s complaint of December 29, 2007, Certificats et attestations.

“extremely fragile”: Chantal Trovel attestation, included in Ibid.

“[Liliane] had completely lost her head”: Nicole Berger attestation, included in Ibid.

serious health challenges: Details from résumé read in court by Judge Michèle Esarté, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes; also in report on Liliane’s medical history by Dr. Philippe Azouvi, April 7, 2008.

“My head is OK”: Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

a brain scan revealed a “hemispheric leukoaraiosis”: Christophe d’Antonio, La Lady et le dandy (Paris: Éditions Jacob-Duvernet, 2010), 25.

“like a zombie”: Claire Thibout deposition, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 79.

“persistent memory problems”: Philippe Koskas deposition, January 17, 2008.

“alteration of her mental faculties”: Michel Kalafat deposition, November 28, 2011.

“no difficulties of intellectual strategy”: Yves Agid, cited in d’Antonio, La Lady, 26; also Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 75.

“the possibility of an organic intellectual deterioration”: Philippe Azouvi, cited in Jugement correctionnel, 76. Parentheses in original.

“disposes of her total will”: Hubert Rémy, certificate, February 19, 2009, 4.

“not the same person”: Rémy, cited in Jugement correctionnel, 76.

destroyed all records: Ibid.

proposed a reconciliation: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 196–97.

spoke for his wife’s interests: Maurice Lévy deposition, January 18, 2013.

According to one version: d’Antonio, La Lady, 166–67.

“I don’t even dare imagine the risk”: Liliane Bettencourt to Françoise Meyers, quoted by Béatrice Gurrey, “Cette lettre est un dernier avertissement,” Le Monde, December 20, 2008.

“the choice of guardian would be made by her daughter”: Maurice Lévy deposition, January 18, 2013.

“she only wanted to see Jean-Victor”: Xavier Fontanet, cited by Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires, January 26, 2015, 18.

“I don’t want to see you anymore”: Nicolas Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 68.

“We crossed paths some fifteen years ago”: François-Marie Banier to Françoise Meyers, July 1, 2008, quoted in “Quand François-Marie Banier tentait une conciliation,” Le Monde, August 28, 2010.

“Monsieur, do not expect me to believe”: Françoise Meyers to François-Marie Banier, July 16, 2008, quoted in Ibid.

CHAPTER 12: SIBLING RIVALS

“You will shed tears of blood”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, August 11, 2016.

Liliane told those around her: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015; Jean-Michel Normand deposition, November 6, 2012, 13.

Françoise was slow, passive, lacking in energy: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 17, 2007, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2; Arielle Dombasle interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016.

never talked about her grandfather: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, December 14, 2008, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“Our attachment is real”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, October 8, 2008, Correspondance, vol. 2.

Liliane sometimes described herself: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, August 20, 2008, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“the son she never had”: Pascal Bonnefoy deposition, quoted in Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 71.

“he was in a way the son she would have wanted”: Jean-Michel Normand deposition, November 6, 2012, 21.

“She is crazy”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, December 28, 1994, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“Your mother makes me furious”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, July 15, 2000, Correspondance, vol. 1.

“I have no confidence in your mother”: Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier, March 8, 2005, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“For 20 years I’ve been telling you”: Banier notebook entry, April 6, 2010, 16.

“Who abandoned the other?”: Ibid., 17.

“You don’t understand”: Liliane Bettencourt entry in Banier notebook, Ibid.

“I think I eliminated Françoise”: Ibid., April 25, 2010, 35.

In his 1941 book: Edmund Wilson, The Wound and the Bow: Seven Studies in Literature (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1941).

she has recorded a CD: André Bettencourt, Souvenirs (Paris: 1999), vol. 2, 342.

“an extraordinary virtuosity”: Arielle Dombasle, interview with Gérard Miller, June 9, 2016.

Hélène Ahrweiler: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Les dieux grecs: géneaologies (Paris: Editions Christian, 2001), i–iii.

“I talked to my father”: Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

CHAPTER 13: SARKOZY JOINS THE FRAY

Jean-Pierre Meyers was also a member: Nicolas Sarkozy deposition, November 22, 2012, 4.

The president had accorded this rendezvous: Ibid., 6.

“I see this grande dame arrive”: Ibid., 8.

Ouart had held high positions: “Patrick Ouart, portrait du conseiller justice de Nicolas Sarkozy,” Politique.net, March 12, 2009, accessed online September 7, 2015, http://www.politique.net/2009031204-portrait-patrick-ouart.htm.

“The discussion was led by Madame Bettencourt”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

“I supported you for your election”: Dominique Gaspard, quoted in Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 199.

Nestlé might be tempted to set aside: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015; Patrice de Maistre testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 51.

“The president was very upset”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

Today the company boasts 82,000 employees: L’Oréal 2015 Annual Report.

The firm’s future seemed solidly in the hands: Details on L’Oréal–Nestlé alliance in Jacques Marseille, L’Oréal: 1909–2009 (Paris: Perrin, 2009), 213–17.

It was renewed for five years: Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme, with staff of Mediapart, L’Affaire Bettencourt: un scandale d’état (Paris: Don Quichotte, 2010), 267.

The danger, Ouart explained: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

Liliane had always sworn: Jean-Pierre Valériola, telephone interview with author, November 6, 2015.

“I don’t want [L’Oréal] to piss off”: Nicolas Sarkozy, quoted in Arfi and Lhomme et al., Affaire Bettencourt, 264.

a personal friend of Sarkozy’s: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Ouart met no fewer than five times: De Maistre testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 51.

“I quoted to both parties this aphorism”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

“the instincts of a hunting dog”: Ibid.

Since the beginning of their friendship: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

met with Sarkozy at least eight times: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Philippe Courroye: ‘Nos relations ne sont pas amicales, mais personnelles,’” Le Monde, October 12, 2012.

“Never about cases”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Courroye, who craved the Paris job: Alain Carignon (former minister of communication, political ally of Sarkozy), interview with author, November 27, 2015.

“People reproach the fact”: Sarkozy, quoted in Raphaëlle Bacqué, “Les réseaux du procureur,” Le Monde, May 17, 2009.

a seven-page report: d’Antonio, La Lady, 12, 36–37; Journal du Dimanche, December 6, 2009.

“body of presumptions”: Gérard Davet and Jacques Follorou, “Les policiers sont à la recherche des ‘petits papiers’ de Mme Bettencourt,” Le Monde, September 1, 2010.

“It’s always dangerous to offer an opinion”: Courroye interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Hervé Gattegno broke the story: Hervé Gattegno, “La milliardaire et le ‘favori,’” Le Point, December 18, 2008, accessed online September 1, 2015, http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-societe/2008-12-18/la-milliardaire-et-le-favori/920/0/300908.

his “instructions” to journalists: Stéphane Arteta, “Olivier Metzner, le roi de la place,” Nouvel Observateur, March 17, 2013, accessed online September 15, 2015, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/justice/20130317.OBS2177/olivier-metzner-le-roi-de-la-place.html#.

“What on earth has gotten into my daughter?”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Michel Deléan, “Liliane Bettencourt: ‘Je n’ai plus envie de voir ma fille,’” Journal du Dimanche, December 21, 2008.

“I am totally indifferent to criticism”: “Le procureur Courroye estime n’avoir ‘ni à se justifier ni à se défendre,’” Nouvel Observateur, July 12, 2010, accessed online July 15, 2010, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/politique/20100712.OBS7019/le-procureur-courroye-estime-n-avoir-ni-a-se-justifier-ni-a-se-defendre.html.

“I studied all the elements”: Courroye interview with author, August 28, 2015.

“I don’t see how you can send Banier to trial”: Marie-Christine d’Aubigney, as quoted by Courroye, Ibid.

“I wanted to let you know”: Courroye, Ibid.

CHAPTER 14: METZNER’S END RUN

The papers were already drawn up: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

Metzner cited Banier: Oliver Metzner, Citation directe devant le Tribunal correctionnel de Nanterre, July 15, 2009.

a long-standing rivalry: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015; Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 28, 2015.

Some said the bad blood: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, Sarko m’a tuer (Paris: J’ai Lu, 2011), 129.

several motions to nullify: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, 5–6.

changed all the locks: Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“I was under surveillance”: Ibid.

“I thought it was a joke”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, August 16, 2016.

a state of uncontrolled anger: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 20, 2015.

“a confident and free relationship”: Ibid.

brought Georges Kiejman on board: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

“oratory cruelty”: Pascale Robert-Diard, La Déposition (Paris: L’Iconoclaste, 2016), 6.

“someone brilliant and original”: Georges Kiejman, email to author, November 7, 2016.

“She explained that it was unacceptable”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, November 9, 2016.

“She never varied on that point”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

That first encounter: Details in this paragraph from Georges Kiejman, interview with author, November 9, 2016; Kiejman emails to author, November 7 and 8, 2016.

“too Jewish”: Liliane Bettencourt, conversation with Patrice de Maistre, recorded November 19, 2009.

asked whether Françoise’s lawyer: Liliane Bettencourt, conversation with Fabrice Goguel, recorded May 27, 2009.

“A daughter can’t accept”: Françoise Meyers interviewed by Hervé Gattegno, “Interview Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers,” Le Point, July 16, 2009, accessed online March 15, 2016, http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-societe/2009-07-16/interview-francoise-bettencourt-meyers/920/0/361839.

“a gift for encounters”: François-Marie Banier, interviewed by Michel Guerrin, “Il y a toujours eu du vacarme derrière moi,” Le Monde, September 12, 2009, 20–21.

“I understand that you are shocked”: François-Marie Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, December 5, 2009, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

Françoise petitioned a civil judge: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 40.

“My dear mother”: Françoise Meyers to Liliane Bettencourt, December 2, 2009, published by Le Figaro, December 3, 2009.

In the absence of a medical certificate: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 40.

“It was the only way to express”: Georges Kiejman, email to author, November 2, 2016.

The brief he filed: Georges Kiejman, Conclusions d’intervention volontaire, December 11, 2009. Copy provided to the author by Georges Kiejman.

“I don’t always follow”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, as quoted by Georges Kiejman in interview of November 9, 2016.

“didn’t have the necessary elements”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

did not claim any monetary damages: Olivier Metzner, interview with author, July 20, 2010.

“In my opinion”: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 20, 2015.

“What I think is horrible”: Karl Lagerfeld, quoted in Bob Colacello, “The Bettencourt Affair, Part II: The Gilded Friendship,” Vanity Fair, November 2010, accessed online February 27, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2010/11/bettencourt-part-2-201011.

“beyond our comprehension”: Seynur de Gramont de Guiche deposition, September 14, 2010.

“People who stood to inherit money”: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 30, 2015.

CHAPTER 15: THE BUTLER DID IT

“The atmosphere among the personnel”: Liliane Hennion deposition, August 2010, cited in Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 60.

“a basket of crabs”: Alain Thurin deposition, October 21, 2010.

The personnel were divided into clans: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 5.

“Madame Gaspard often adopted”: Thierry Coulon deposition, August 27, 2010, cited in Cornut-Gentille, Merlet, and Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires, January 26, 2015, 58.

“profoundly hysterical and jealous”: Françoise Mauclère deposition, October 26, 2006, appended to Banier’s complaint of April 6, 2012.

showed up drunk: Jérôme Sarran deposition, October 20, 2010, 3; Banier refers to this “unqualifiable” incident in a letter to Liliane Bettencourt, May 30, 2007, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol 2.

one staffer reportedly threatened: Banier journal entry, March 28, 2007.

After André’s death, some concluded: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2014.

the “charming” bodyguard Vaccaro: François-Marie Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, May 30, 2007, Correspondance, vol. 2.

another rift opened up: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 63.

Madame Bettencourt fired most of those: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January–February 2015, 36.

When she was fired in November 2008: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2015.

she didn’t even report it to tax authorities: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

he might be the next victim: Pascal Bonnefoy testimony, November 3, 2015, from author’s trial notes.

urinating on the plants: Pascal Bonnefoy deposition, cited in Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, January–February 2015, 51.

“Madame is not your wife”: Pascal Bonnefoy deposition, quoted in Ibid., 50.

“Madame frowned and ignored me”: Ibid., 49.

“I know you suspect me of testifying”: Pascal Bonnefoy, quoted in Hervé Gattegno, “Le majordome qui a fait trembler Sarkozy,” Vanity Fair (French edition), June 26, 2014.

“Madame Bettencourt needs to know”: Lindsay Owen-Jones, as quoted by Bonnefoy in Ibid.

“I wanted to know what was going on”: Bonnefoy, in Ibid.

Patrice de Maistre arrived: Recording transcript, May 25, 2009.

having security experts sweep the office: Patrice de Maistre, conversation with Liliane Bettencourt, recorded January 6, 2010.

“After serving the drinks”: Bonnefoy, in Gattegno, “Le majordome.”

he decided to consult a lawyer: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 21, 2010.

“It was the atom bomb”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

“what you have done is a crime”: Dialogue as recounted in Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 21, 2010.

Bonnefoy turned to Philippe Dunand: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 44.

He was determined to capture: Pascal Bonnefoy testimony, November 3, 2015, from author’s trial notes.

decided to give his notice: Ibid.

crossed the rue Delabordère: Details from Gattegno, “Le majordome”; Bonnefoy testimony, November 3, 2015, from author’s trial notes.

“How did you get them?”: Dialogue as recounted in Françoise Meyers’s typed summary of events, included in investigative file.

Bonnefoy asked Françoise to wait: Bonnefoy testimony, November 3, 2015.

“We have to be transparent”: Olivier Metzner, interview with author, July 20, 2010.

they took the CDs to the office of Jérôme Cohen: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 40–41.

he called Judge Prévost-Desprez: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“You will have them”: Dialogue as recounted by Prévost-Desprez, Ibid.

Françoise sent a courier: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 40–41.

contacted Nanterre prosecutor Courroye: Ibid.

The first violation he targeted: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 26, 2015.

ordered a complete transcription: Ibid.

provided Prévost-Desprez with copies: Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“explosive document”: Stéphane Arteta, “Olivier Metzner, le roi de la place,” Nouvel Observateur, March 17, 2013.

“Metzner had a reputation”: Pascale Robert-Diard, interview with author, October 8, 2015.

“the collusion between the summit of political power”: Edwy Plenel, interview with author, July 14, 2010.

“The courtroom was as full as a beehive”: Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“Now he’s looking for it”: Exchange between Kiejman and Metzner as recounted by Bastien Bonnefous, “Kiejman—Metzner, poings de droit”: Slate (French edition), September 14, 2010, accessed online September 16, 2010, http://www.slate.fr/story/27227/bettencourt-kiejman-metzner-poings-de-droit.

“I warn you, gentlemen”: Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“the methods used by the plaintiff”: Hervé Temime, quoted in Karl Laske, “Le procès Banier s’empare des écoutes,” Libération, July 2, 2010.

“You can no longer render a credible decision”: Georges Kiejman, as quoted in Ibid.

“an aged little girl 57 years old”: Ibid.

suspended the session: Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“in a confrontation with Sarkozy”: Ibid.

CHAPTER 16: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

“I’m going to the Élysée this afternoon”: Patrice de Maistre, conversation with Liliane Bettencourt, recording of June 12, 2009.

“Sarkozy’s adviser, whom I see regularly”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of July 21, 2009.

a charge that Sarkozy, Courroye, and Ouart deny: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 26, 2015; Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

“[Ouart] wanted to see me”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of April 23, 2010.

de Maistre had recruited: “Florence Woerth s’explique sur ses conditions d’embauche,” Le Monde, July 21, 2010.

“friend Éric Woerth”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of October 27, 2009.

“the one who oversees your taxes”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of October 29, 2009.

“pushy” and “tiresome”: Ibid.

“it’s only 7,500”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of March 4, 2010.

“arranging to send [the funds]”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of November 19, 2009.

“several things to discuss”: Patrice de Maistre, exchange with Liliane Bettencourt, September 7, 2009.

“I sign at the bottom?”: Liliane Bettencourt, exchange with Jean-Michel Normand, September 9, 2009.

only de Maistre was designated: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 118.

buy him a sailboat as a “gift”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of October 22, 2009.

“When I cut off the onboard engine”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of October 29, 2009.

“Oh yes, I understand”: Liliane Bettencourt, recording of October 22, 2009.

“Do you still want to offer me a gift?”: Patrice de Maistre, exchange with Liliane Bettencourt, recorded October 23, 2009.

talked Liliane into giving him €5 million: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 120.

bumped up by 60 percent: Ibid., 117–21.

“pluck the feathers”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2015.

“imbecile” who “throws oil on the fire”: Patrice de Maistre, recording of November 30, 2009.

“Your notary tells me”: Patrice de Maistre, exchange with Liliane Bettencourt, recorded March 4, 2010.

“Banier wants you to change”: Jean-Michel Normand, exchange with Liliane Bettencourt, March 12, 2010.

“he doesn’t know how to behave”: Liliane Bettencourt, exchange with Patrice de Maistre, recorded October 29, 2009.

“I just hope he doesn’t kill me”: Liliane Bettencourt, exchange with Patrice de Maistre, recorded April 7, 2010.

Île d’Arros, the private island: Details on the Bettencourts’ acquisition and use of d’Arros from Hervé Gattegno, “L’île maudite des Bettencourt,” Vanity Fair (French edition), February 9, 2015, accessed online May 29, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/ile-darros-paradis-maudit/1641.

“What island?”: Liliane Bettencourt, exchange with Patrice de Maistre, recorded May 11, 2010.

“For 2006, you have to find something”: François-Marie Banier, recorded May 11, 2010.

“things will turn out fine”: Ibid.

“With your letters, thanks to your ear”: Ibid.

“If [Sarkozy] had been spattered”: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 26, 2015.

Another possible interpretation: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 21, 2010.

“everything spun out of control”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

CHAPTER 17: The WOERTH AFFAIR

Sarkozy might even name him: Éric Woerth, Dans la tourmente (Paris: Plon, 2011), 69.

had filed a complaint: Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme, with staff of Mediapart, L’Affaire Bettencourt: un scandale d’état (Paris: Don Quichotte, 2010), 62.

Courroye had his detectives interrogate Thibout: Ibid., 61–66.

“the affair turned political”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 21, 2010.

“The Accountant Accuses”: Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme, “L’ex-comptable des Bettencourt accuse: des enveloppes d’argent à Woerth et à Sarkozy,” Mediapart, July 6, 2010, accessed online July 16, 2010, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/060710/lex-comptable-des-bettencourt-accuse-des-enveloppes-dargent-woerth-et-sarkozy. All Thibout quotes in this and the following three paragraphs are from this source.

“Sometimes it is useful”: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 131.

Thibout’s interview triggered: Claude Guéant, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

“I’m starting to get sick and tired”: Nicolas Sarkozy, quoted in Woerth, Tourmente, 138.

Guéant had organized a nucleus: Arfi and L’homme, Affaire Bettencourt, 253–57.

“light counter-fires”: Claude Guéant, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

Guéant called an emergency meeting: Ibid.

One participant suggested: Details on the meeting from Nadine Morano, telephone interview with author, November 17, 2015; Antoine Guiral, “La cellule Guéant, défense immunitaire contre les affaires,” Libération, September 3, 2011.

UMP party leader Xavier Bertrand: “‘Méthodes fascistes’: Mediapart va attaquer Xavier Bertrand en diffamation,” L’Express, July 7, 2010.

Mediapart lost the 2013 ruling: “Xavier Bertrand relaxé pour ses ptopos sur les ‘méthodes fascistes’ de Mediapart,” Le Monde, March 26, 2013, accessed online January 25, 2017, http://www.lemonde.fr/actualite-medias/article/2013/03/26/xavier-bertrand-relaxe-pour-ses-propos-sur-les-methodes-fascistes-de-mediapart_3148213_3236.html.

Courroye ordered his detectives to re-interrogate: Arfi and Lhomme, Affaire Bettencourt, 67–71.

“the real truth comes out!”: Ibid., 256.

confronted her face-to-face: Deposition de Maistre–Thibout confrontation, July 8, 2010.

“I felt they were treating me”: Thibout, quoted in Arfi and Lhomme, Affaire Bettencourt, 72.

“ceaselessly told the truth”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 21, 2010.

the president took to the airwaves: All Sarkozy quotes in this paragraph are from Sophie Landrin, “Nicolas Sarkozy joue la réforme contre les affaires,” Le Monde, July 14, 2010, 10.

Woerth’s wife, Florence, resigned: “Florence Woerth s’explique sur ses conditions d’embauche,” Le Monde, July 21, 2010.

she told a different story: Ibid.

didn’t think much of her work: Patrice de Maistre, recording of October 29, 2009.

called her “pushy”: Ibid.

Woerth’s “Achilles’ heel”: “Portrait: Florence Woerth, une femme de tête qui ne voulait pas être une ‘femme de . . . ’” La Dépêche du Midi, July 1, 2010.

“an original and trendy way”: Paul Warguin, “Le haras qui rit de Florence Woerth,” L’Express, July 7, 2010, accessed online April 27, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/le-haras-qui-rit-de-florence-woerth_904667.html.

Florence Woerth was elected: “Portrait: Florence Woerth.”

His public statements on the subject: “Eric Woerth: Tout cet acharnement, c’est fait pour tuer,’” Le Parisien, August 30, 2010.

Woerth was interrogated: Éric Woerth deposition, July 29, 2010.

Woerth had personally written to Sarkozy: Jugement correctionnel contradictoire, May 28, 2915, 6. (Ruling in the influence peddling case against de Maistre and Woerth.)

tax returns had not been audited: Arfi and Lhomme, Affaire Bettencourt, 66.

The in-house report: Sophie Fay, “Un rapport en terrain miné,” Le Nouvel Observateur, July 22–28, 2010, 37.

made him go ballistic: Gérard Davet, “L’audition de Patrice de Maistre met Eric Woerth en difficulté,” Le Monde, July 17, 2010.

Sarkozy ordered chief of staff Claude Guéant: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, Sarko m’a tuer (Paris: Editions Stock, 2011), 21–39.

removed from his Justice Ministry post: Ibid., and David Sénat, La république des conseillers (Paris: Grasset, 2015), ch. 10.

“Sarkozy doesn’t mess around”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

CHAPTER 18: FILTHY RICH

One skit showed Sarkozy’s allies: This and other Mamie Zinzin skits are viewable on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhGwRlXtK2U.

“we didn’t talk about money”: Françoise Meyers, interviewed by Raphaëlle Bacquet, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: ‘Allons-y, mieux vaut tout purger,’” M Magazine du Monde, March 10, 2012, 45.

“My only adversary”: Charles de Gaulle, quoted in Pascal Bruckner, La Sagesse de l’argent (Paris: Grasset, 2016), 62.

“money that corrupts”: François Mitterrand, quoted in Ibid., 62.

“I don’t like the rich”: François Hollande, quoted in Ibid., 66.

“president of the rich”: Michel Pinçon and Monique Pinçon-Charlot, Le président des riches (Paris: Zones, 2010).

to live happily, live hidden: Liliane Bettencourt quoted this traditional saying in a letter to François-Marie Banier, November 18, 1994, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 1.

72 percent of the respondents: IFOP poll, October 2012. On French attitudes toward money: Janine Mossuz-Lavau, L’Argent et nous (Paris: Editions de La Martinière, 2007).

“reticence to talk about money”: Janine Mossuz-Lavau, interview with author, July 7, 2015.

“For those who wanted to show”: Michel Wieviorka, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

“We did not fully appreciate the extent”: Éric Woerth, Dans la tourmente (Paris: Plon, 2011), 127.

Liliane herself was widely seen: Janine Mossuz-Lavau, interview with author, July 7, 2015.

One website invited users to compare: See https://www.mataf.net/en/lab/liliane.

“They massacred François-Marie”: Richard Malka (attorney for Martin d’Orgeval), interview with author, June 9, 2016.

“A rich woman”: Liliane Bettencourt interviewed by Nicole Wisniak, “A partir d’un certain Chiffre, les gens Déraillent,” Egoïste, no. 10 (1987), 55.

“There are a lot of jealous people”: Ibid.

created the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation: Bruno Abescat, La saga des Bettencourt (Paris: Plon, 2010), ch. 4.

Liliane donated €552 million: Ibid., 42.

“43 years of social and professional activity”: Anouk Vincent, Le roman vrai des Bettencourt (Paris: City Editions, 2010), 156.

choice for master of ceremonies: Ibid.

CHAPTER 19: BANIER’S ANNÉE TERRIBLE

wrote down their exchanges: The notebooks containing their written exchanges during this period are contained in the investigative dossier. The written dialogue quoted here is from an entry of July 6, 2010.

Madame “did not wish to speak” to him: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 18, 2015, Note d’audience, 212.

“tender and dear” friendship: François-Marie Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, August 17, 2010, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

“didn’t batter down the doors”: François-Marie Banier testimony, May 12, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“The summer of 2010 was extremely hard”: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 20, 2015.

exchange with Barbier: François-Marie Banier, interviewed by Christophe Barbier and Jean-Marie Pontaut, “Francois-Marie Banier: ‘La générosité de Liliane est voulue, décidée, calculée,” L’Express, July 14, 2010, 54–59.

Liliane received her lawyer Georges Kiejman: Georges Kiejman interview with author, July 8, 2015, and November 9, 2016.

“too much is too much”: Georges Kiejman, quoted in “M. Banier n’est plus légataire universel de Mme Bettencourt,” Le Monde, August 28, 2010.

a Paris Match interview that read like a farewell letter: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Arnaud Bizot, “Liliane Bettencourt nous ouvre les portes de son cœur,” Paris Match, September 30, 2010, 71–74.

coached and edited: Marion Bougeard of the agency Opus Conseils: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 169; Marion Bougeard, interview with author, August 10, 2010.

“the media noise”: François Krug, “Affaire Bettencourt: L’Oréal lâche Banier, question d’image,” Nouvel Observateur, September 20, 2010, accessed online March 3, 2015, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-politique/20100920.RUE8588/affaire-bettencourt-l-oreal-lache-banier-question-d-image.html.

Banier liquidated his company: See http://www.societe.com/societe/hericy-410235501.html.

personally telephoned Jean-Paul Agon: Françoise Meyers deposition, August 17, 2010, 7.

“The current climate is not favorable”: Jean-Luc Monterosso, quoted in “François-Marie Banier déprogrammé à Paris,” AFP, October 7, 2010.

The same reasoning: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, October 25, 2016.

“He tries not to show it”: Pascal Greggory, quoted in Michel Guerrin, “François-Marie Banier le mauvais génie,” M Le Magazine du Monde, October 16, 2010.

on the verge of suicide: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, June 8, 2016.

“He placed himself in a kind of theater”: Jean-Michel Ribes, interview with author, November 18, 2015.

CHAPTER 20: THE FIXER

“descent into hell”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 11, 2015, Note d’audience, 154.

de Maistre’s personal lawyer since 1996: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 163.

no real friendship: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

son of a Jewish clothier: Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #17. Relaxe générale, pour la défense,” Le Monde website, February 25, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/25/proces-bettencourt-17-relaxe-generale-pour-la-defense.

not sailing, but judo: Alain Pénin, Expertise Psychologique/Wilhelm, December 4, 2012, 6.

A specialist in conflict resolution: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

a man of “strong temperament”: Wilhelm testimony, February 11, 2015, Note d’audience, 149.

published a biography: Pascal Wilhelm, Camille Desmoulins: le premier républicain de France (Paris: Grancher, 2015).

“like the queen of England”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“What should we do?”: Dialogue as recounted by Wilhelm, Ibid.

Wilhelm contacted the Finance Ministry: Details of Wilhelm’s dealings with tax authorities from interview of June 23, 2016, and Wilhelm’s testimony, February 11, 2015, Note d’audience, 153.

Liliane invited Wilhelm: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“I can’t continue”: Dialogue as recounted by Wilhelm, Ibid.

The idea had been bandied about: Recording of September 7, 2009.

she found it “too violent”: Wilhelm testimony, February 11, 2015, 147.

“It’s too dangerous for L’Oréal”: Laurent Valdiguié, “Affaires Bettencourt: Les dessous d’un arrangement,” Le Journal du Dimanche, December 12, 2010.

Wilhelm contacted Didier Martin: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

left out of the loop: Ibid.

de Maistre sought Wilhelm’s help: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 28, 2016.

“the recordings did not reflect”: Laurent Obadia deposition, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2016, 169.

a whopping monthly fee of €80,000: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Voyages, encadrement des interviews: comment travaillait le ‘communicant’ de Liliane Bettencourt,” Le Monde, October 27, 2011.

directly involved in editing: Marion Bougeard, email to Pascal Wilhelm, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 18.

“reworked and amended”: Bougeard depostion, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 179; Marion Bougeard, interview with author, August 10, 2010.

“Madame is not interested in that”: Patrice de Maistre, quoted in Michel Guerrin, “21 minutes avec Liliane Bettencourt,” Le Monde, June 19, 2010.

“looking over [her] shoulder”: Marion Bougeard, email to Michel Guerrin, cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 179.

Le Monde published the interview: Guerrin, “21 minutes.”

It was later revealed: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 179.

“You want me to take it all back?”: Liliane Bettencourt, interview with Claire Chazal, TF1, July 21, 2010.

“must have taken German lessons”: Breitou [screen name], “Le Raus des Bettancourt [sic] et les juifs,” Harissa.com, July 25, 2010, accessed online October 17, 2016, http://www.harissa.com/forums/read.php?56,84067.

Prévost-Desprez first learned the details: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

indemnity “poses a problem”: Ibid.

a police search of the Meyers apartment: Françoise Meyers to Claire Thibout, July 11, 2007, included in investigative file.

Banier’s lawyers filed a complaint: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 34.

Kiejman phoned Courroye: Georges Kiejman interview with author, November 9, 2016.

complaint for “violation of professional secrets”: Ibid.

fifty-seven text messages: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 26, 2015.

“the Nanterre tribunal had become a boxing ring”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

the cases were transferred: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 47.

“So I would stop the investigations”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

Courroye would be demoted: Philippe Courroye, interview with author, August 26, 2015; “La mutation forcée de Courroye désormais officielle,” Le Figaro, August 3, 2012, accessed online May 15, 2016, http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2012/08/03/01002-20120803ARTFIG00277-la-mutation-forcee-de-courroye-desormais-officielle.php.

promoted in August 2016: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, email to author, December 1, 2016.

Wilhelm retaliated: Pascal Wilhelm to Philippe Courroye, October 20, 2010; Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 46.

“You want war, you’ll get war”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, July 28, 2016.

a second citation: Olivier Metzner, Citation directe devant le Tribunal Correctionnel de Nanterre, November 3, 2010.

pressure from L’Oréal management: Raphaëlle Bacqué and Pascale Robert-Diard, “Les dessous de la réconciliation des Bettencourt,” Le Monde, December 7, 2010.

But both sides would have to make concessions: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“Your daughter is like Prince Charles”: Ibid.

“family coexistence”: Wilhelm testimony, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 167.

she mandated Wilhelm: Ibid.

It was Metzner’s task to negotiate: Bacqué and Robert-Diard, “Les dessous.”

the whole family gathered: Laurent Valdiguié, “Affaires Bettencourt: Les dessous d’un arrangement,” Journal du Dimanche, December 12, 2010.

“happy about the reconciliation”: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 64.

“not apt to perform legal acts”: Christian de Jaeger deposition, October 8, 2012; cited in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 165.

The eight-page protocol: Protocole d’accord, December 6, 2010, included in investigative file.

a separate agreement: Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #2. La défense échoue à renvoyer l’audience,” Le Monde, February 3, 2015, accessed online March 2, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/03/proces-bettencourt-2-la-defense-echoue-a-renvoyer-laudience/.

Liliane has not received a dime: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony, May 18, 2015, from author’s trial notes; Jean-Victor Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 67.

there wasn’t much room to negotiate: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, interview with author, May 31, 2016.

giving up more than €600 million: Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 333. By the time the case went to trial in 2015, the contracts were worth more than a billion euros: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 197.

could have cashed in the contracts: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, June 2, 2016.

On the afternoon of December 6: Ibid.

the return of “family harmony”: Bacqué and Robert-Diard, “Les dessous.”

“Didier Martin called me”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“I was in a rage”: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, July 8, 2015.

ten times more: Ibid.

“how could she sign this protocol?”: Ibid.

“It’s incomprehensible”: Richard Malka, interview with author, June 9, 2016.

Ouart privately questions: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

“I think those people”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“No comment”: Jean-Pierre Meyers testimony, May 18, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

denying that she had played any direct role: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 64–65.

“The family never considered”: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

the direct financial benefit: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, Laurent Merlet, and Daniel Lasserre, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 22–23.

became her testamentary executor: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 196.

“assumed most of these tasks”: Wilhelm deposition, June 12, 2012, cited in Ibid., 165–66.

billed €200,000 per month: Wilhelm testimony, February 11, 2015, Note d’audience, 155.

Wilhelm was to manage the capital: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 142.

claimed it was Liliane herself: Wilhelm testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 207–8.

Wilhelm’s intervention: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 182–95.

a personal friend of President Sarkozy: Renaud Revel, “Stéphane Courbit, la roue de la fortune,” L’Express, January 16, 2013, accessed online, December 9, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/medias/stephane-courbit-la-roue-de-la-fortune_1210300.html.

mistook him for a pop singer: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 190. Wilhelm insisted in court that Liliane had indeed “understood the nature of the investment.” Wilhelm testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 206.

The initial agreement with Courbit: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 192.

“it was a good investment”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, July 28, 2016.

billed Courbit’s company €150,000: Wilhelm testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 211.

Thurin acted as a conduit: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 142.

Wilhelm would send Thurin the texts: Ibid., 166.

purloin her letterhead stationery: Claire Thibout depositions, cited by Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January–February 2015, 41–42; Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

“Thurin’s role went beyond”: Wilhelm testimony, February 18, 2015, Note d’audience, 212.

Madame Bettencourt revised her will: “L’ancien infirmier de Liliane Bettencourt mis en examen,” Le Monde, October 17, 2010.

in spite of the local prosecutor’s call: Procureur Claude Laplaud, Communiqué, March 23, 2011.

the withdrawal of complaints: Author interviews with Nicolas Huc-Morel, November 26, 2015; Georges Kiejman, July 7, 2015; Laurent Merlet, August 3, 2015.

For Georges Kiejman, though, it was over: Georges Kiejman, interview with author, November 9, 2016.

CHAPTER 21: BORDEAUX

“Bordeaux has always been a snake pit”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

The son of a Mercedes dealer: Details on Gentil’s background from François Labrouillère and David Le Bailly, “Jean-Michel Gentil: un juge apolitique et inflexible,” Paris Match, April 27, 2012; Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Jean-Michel Gentil, juge intransigeant et solitaire,” Le Monde, March 22, 2013.

a manner some described as haughty: Nicolas Cori, “Jean-Michel Gentil, un ‘justicier’ dans l’affaire Bettencourt,” Libération, January 19, 2010, accessed online January 9, 2016, http://www.liberation.fr/france/2012/01/19/jean-michel-gentil-un-justicier-dans-l-affaire-bettencourt_789421.

Starting salary for a French judge: Article on French magistrates, cidj.com, accessed online September 1, 2016, http://www.cidj.com/article-metier/magistrat-magistrate.

divided them into eight separate cases: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 48.

withdrew their respective complaints: Ibid., 49.

Accompanied by the judge and two police officers: Details on medical experts’ examination of Liliane Bettencourt and conclusions from Sophie Gromb et al., Rapport d’experts, September 28, 2011, included in investigative file.

critics hotly disputed the validity: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 85; Bernard Laurent testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 192.

Demands by Banier, de Maistre, and others: “Bettencourt: la cour d’appel valide l’ensemble de la procédure,” Nouvel Observateur, September 24, 2013, accessed online August 15, 2016, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/justice/20130924.OBS8147/bettencourt-la-cour-d-appel-valide-l-ensemble-de-la-procedure.html.

she filed a petition to investigate Pascal Wilhelm’s conduct: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January–February 2015, 9–10.

Françoise justified her initiative: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Affaire Bettencourt: Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers saisit à nouveau la juge des tutelles,” Le Monde, June 8, 2011.

she wanted to keep Wilhelm: Liliane Bettencourt, quoted in Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #13. Liliane Bettencourt n’est plus dans le même monde,” Le Monde website, February 18, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/18/proces-bettencourt-13-liliane-bettencourt-nest-plus-dans-le-meme-monde.

“That’s how it is”: Ibid.

Kass-Danno handed down her decision: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 49; Huc-Morel and Labrousse, Conclusions, 49.

“I raised her and yet”: Liliane Bettencourt, interviewed by Laurent Valdiguié, “Bettencourt: ‘Si ma fille gagne, je pars à l’étranger,” Journal du Dimanche, October 16, 2011.

“What’s the matter, Grand-mère?”: Dialogue as recounted by a source close to the Meyers family who wishes to remain anonymous; Jean-Victor Meyers described the same scene more succinctly in his testimony of January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 66.

Judge Kass-Danno named real estate developer Olivier Pelat: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 49.

Liliane Bettencourt’s godson: François Vidal, “Olivier Pelat, le discret ange gardien de Liliane Bettencourt,” Les Echos, April 29, 2016, accessed online April 30, 2016, http://www.lesechos.fr/29/04/2016/LesEchosWeekEnd/00029-011-ECWE_olivier-pelat-le-discret-ange-gardien-de-liliane-bettencourt.htm.

CHAPTER 22: HARDBALL

Monday, December 12, 2011: Unless otherwise indicated, all details of the arrest and incarceration of François-Marie Banier and Martin d’Orgeval from police reports labeled Mandat d’amener François-Marie Banier, December 9–12, 2011; also Martin d’Orgeval’s unpublished notes, made available to the author by Martin d’Orgeval.

kept in the so-called VIP wing: Martin d’Orgeval, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

helped a friend arrange: “Affaire Bissonnet: Le vicomte d’Harcourt libéré,” France Soir, May 18, 2012, accessed online September 3, 2016, http://archive.francesoir.fr/actualite/justice/affaire-bissonnet-le-vicomte-d-harcourt-libere-227341.html.

“It was a violent experience”: Martin d’Orgeval, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

gifts worth more than €3 million: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 19.

the judge was hostile: François-Marie Banier, telephone conversation with author, September 2, 2016.

they were mis en examen: Procès verbal de première comparution, December 14, 2011.

bail in the amount of €10 million: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 3, 7.

“the extremely brutal way”: Procès verbal de première comparution, December 14, 2011, 3.

“absolutely no reason”: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, interview with author, May 31, 2016.

“you become an obstacle, or you lie down”: Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 23, 2016.

“I was on the wrong side”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 52.

the prosecutor had specifically instructed: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, email to author, November 29, 2015; Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

She and other jurists: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 20, 2015.

Courroye did have de Maistre briefly detained: Philippe Courroye, email to author, January 14, 2016.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011: Details of de Maistre’s arrest and detainment from police reports labeled Mandat d’amener DE MAISTRE Patrice, December 14, 2011.

The judge laid out the charges against him: Réquisitions aux fins de placement sous contrôle judiciaire, December 15, 2011.

Judge Gentil had him locked up: “Affaire Bettencourt: Patrice de Maistre en détention provisoire,” Le Monde, March 23, 2012.

What Gentil really wanted: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 18, 2015, Note d’audience, 214; Pascal Wilhelm, interview with author, June 28, 2016.

Sarkozy summoned his key advisers: Judge Jean-Michel Gentil and Judge Valérie Noël, Ordonnance de non-lieu partiel et de renvoi devant le tribunal correctionnel, October 7, 2013, 153–54.

Sarkozy’s crusade to abolish: “Nicolas Sarkozy confirme qu’il veut supprimer le juge d’instruction,” Le Monde, January 7, 2009.

“hatred of rare intensity”: “Sarkozy et les juges: chronique d’une guerre sans merci,” Nouvel Observateur, March 23, 2013, accessed online June 9, 2016, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/societe/20130323.OBS2839/sarkozy-et-les-juges-chronique-d-une-guerre-sans-merci.html.

their chance to exact revenge on a president: Ibid.

According to accountant Claire Thibout: See chapter 17.

de Maistre and Woerth met in a café: Jean-Michel Gentil and Cécile Romonatxo, Procès-verbal de diligences et d’analyse, March 27, 2013, 2–3.

he had flown to Geneva: Chronology cited by Judge Gentil in his interrogation of Nicolas Sarkozy, November 22, 2012, 17.

COFINOR made seven deliveries: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 127; Procès verbal de confrontation, June 14, 2012.

he claimed to have “destroyed” all the receipts: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 138.

An analysis of her account books: Ibid., 139.

The obvious suspicion: Ibid., 140.

Woerth met with Sarkozy at his campaign headquarters: Ibid., 134; Gentil and Romonatxo, Procès-verbal, 3.

Sarkozy himself had made at least two visits: Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “Affaire Bettencourt: non-lieu pour Sarkozy,” Le Monde, October 7, 2013.

“For his campaign? Not at all”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

she was not alone in thinking: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 127; Procès verbal de confrontation, June 14, 2012.

Claire Thibout’s €50,000 claim was a “lie”: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 129.

Gentil organized a confrontation: Details of the confrontation from Procès verbal de confrontation, June 14, 2012.

the judge exacted an additional bail payment: “Affaire Bettencourt: Patrice de Maistre libéré contre une caution de 2 millions d’euros,” Le Monde, June 18, 2012.

CHAPTER 23: A PRESIDENT IN THE CROSSHAIRS

51.9 percent of the vote: the actual result was 51.64 percent for Hollande and 48.36 percent for Sarkozy, according to the official figures of the French Interior Ministry.

cleared the use of Bonnefoy’s illicit recordings: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 50.

“Sarkozy had asked for money”: Quoted in Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, “L’affaire Bettencourt se rapproche de Nicolas Sarkozy,” Le Monde, March 27, 2012.

a coincidence that the judge found “curious”: Jean-Michel Gentil interrogation of Nicolas Sarkozy, Procès verbal de première comparution, November 22, 2012, 22.

“but it was someone important”: François-Marie Banier deposition, quoted in Davet and Lhomme, “L’Affaire Bettencourt.”

“That doesn’t interest me”: Ibid.

Gentil warned the ex-president at the outset: Procès verbal, November 22, 2012, 2.

“never asked them for a centime”: Sarkozy, Ibid., 17.

“she heard nothing”: Ibid., 4.

“I gave this appointment to the main shareholder”: Ibid., 6.

never discussed “a single case”: Ibid., 25.

“to obtain a mediation, a pacification”: Ibid., 28.

“Why would you follow a private judicial affair”: Gentil, Ibid., 28.

“The Banier procedure doesn’t interest us”: Sarkozy, Ibid., 30.

“Couldn’t one imagine”: Gentil, Ibid., 30.

“Banier, and as far as I know, exclusively Banier”: Sarkozy, Ibid., 31.

they assigned him the status of “assisted witness”: Ibid., 33.

the “affair no longer exists”: “L’affaire Bettencourt ‘n’existe plus’ selon Thierry Herzog, avocat de Nicolas Sarkozy,” Huffington Post (French edition), November 23, 2012, accessed online September 9, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/11/23/affaire-bettencourt-terminee-selon-thierry-herzo-avocat-nicolas-sarkozy_n_2176596.html.

Sarkozy stuck to his earlier claim: The entire transcript of Sarkozy’s confrontation with ex-butlers Pascal Bonnefoy and Bruno Lantuas; former nurse Henriette Youpatchou; and former chambermaid Dominique Gaspard was published on the website of Vanity Fair’s French edition: “Sarkozy face aux employés de maison: le texte intégral des confrontations,” February 17, 2015, accessed online July 21, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/france/articles/pv-audition-sarkozy-a aire-bettencourt-herzog-lantuas-youpatchou/122.

“For a political figure like him”: Claude Guéant interview with author, December 15, 2015.

267-page ordonnance summarizing the charges: See Jean-Michel Gentil and Valérie Noël, Ordonnance de non lieu partiel de requalificationet de renvoidevant le tribunal correctionnel, October 7, 2013, for all details in this paragraph.

“I once told him that he was radioactive”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

interrogated for eighteen hours: Dan Bilefsky and Maïa de la Baume, “French Ex-Leader Questioned in Graft Inquiry, Imperiling Comeback Hopes,” New York Times, July 1, 2014.

This latest scandal grew out of allegations: Jonathan Parienté, Maxime Vaudano, and Samuel Laurent, “Affaire des écoutes: ce qui est reproché à Nicolas Sarkozy,” Le Monde, March 13, 2014.

The main informant was Gilbert Azibert: Ibid.

the Paris appeals court rejected Sarkozy’s challenge: Paul Gonzales, “La justice valide des écoutes de Nicolas Sarkozy,” Le Figaro, March 22, 2016, accessed online March 22, 2016, http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2016/03/22/01016-20160322ARTFIG00259-la-justice-valide-des-ecoutes-de-nicolas-sarkozy.php.

the Paris Prosecutor’s Office called for Sarkozy to stand trial: “Affaire Bygmalion: le parquet demande le renvoi de Sarkozy en correctionnelle,” Le Parisien, September 5, 2016.

“sordid Bettencourt Affair”: Nicolas Sarkozy, primary debate broadcast October 13, 2016, by TF1.

“money that corrupts”: François Mitterrand, quoted in Pascal Bruckner, La Sagesse de l’argent (Paris: Grasset, 2016), 62.

CHAPTER 24: BANIER STRIKES BACK

the photographer had filed a complaint: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 45.

they painted a devastating portrait of Banier: See summary of their original attestations in chapter 11.

Banier’s lawyers filed a perjury complaint: See Pierre Cornut-Gentille and Laurent Merlet, Plainte pour faux témoignages et attestations inexactes, April 6, 2012, for all details in this paragraph. 

Banier’s complaint wound up on the desk of Roger Le Loire: David Bensoussan, “Roger Le Loire, l’atypique juge de l’affaire de la caisse noire de l’UIMM,” Challenges, October 4, 2013, accessed online September 13, 2016, http://www.challenges.fr/economie/20131003.CHA5095/atypique.html; Simon Piel, “La tentation politique du juge Le Loire,” Le Monde, August 6, 2016.

“respectful” and “civilized”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, July 18, 2016.

put Claire Thibout under investigation: Affaire Bettencourt: l’ex-comptable poursuivie pour faux témoignages,” L’Obs, November 28, 2014, accessed online September 15, 2016, http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/justice/20141128.OBS6503/affaire-bettencourt-l-ex-comptable-poursuivie-pour-faux-temoignages.html.

In April 2015, he did the same: Pascal Ceaux, “Affaire Bettencourt: soupçons sur les témoins,” L’Express, January 14, 2016, accessed online September 15, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/affaire-bettencourt-soupcons-sur-les-temoins_1753103.html.

Le Loire slapped a new charge: “Affaire Bettencourt: Claire Thibout mise en examen,” Le Figaro, September 29, 2015, accessed online September 29, 2015, http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2015/09/28/97001-20150928FILWWW00368-aaire-bettencourt-claire-thibout-mise-en-examen.php.

dropped the subornation charges: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 34.

Françoise granted an unsecured loan: Antoine Gillot, interviews with author, July 20, 2015, and August 4, 2015; Claire Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 134.

Thibout had appealed to Françoise: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, August 4, 2015.

the loan’s timing was suspect: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, interview with author, May 31, 2016.

filed new charges against Françoise: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, email to author, September 14, 2016.

it would be the “atomic bomb”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, December 11, 2015.

Le Loire took a step in that direction: “Le procès Bettencourt manipulé?” Le Point, October 3, 2015, accessed online October 3, 2015, http://www.lepoint.fr/justice/le-proces-bettencourt-manipule-03-10-2015-1970386_2386.php.

CHAPTER 25: LIFE AND DEATH

On this particular morning: Details from Vincent Monnier, “Olivier Metzner, histoire d’un héritage impossible,” Nouvel Observateur, April 20, 2014, accessed online September 16, 2016, http://o.nouvelobs.com/people/20140418.OBS4484/olivier-metzner-histoire-d-un-heritage-impossible.html.

“preserve the defense of our clients”: Ibid.

“the last case that he would plead”: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

Metzner spent eleven months: Details from Stéphane Durand-Souffland, “L’avocat Olivier Metzner vend son île bretonne,” Le Figaro, November 20, 2012, accessed online September 15, 2016, http://immobilier.lefigaro.fr/article/l-avocat-olivier-metzner-vend-son-ile-bretonne_bca3eb2c-3325-11e2-8b8c-bebc0bbc3090/; also, online video of the island and its structures: http://iledeboedic.fr.

An obsessive workaholic: Pascale Robert-Diard, “Olivier Metzner, derrière l’avocat, l’homme secret,” Le Monde, March 19, 2013, 11.

“He started crying like a baby”: Denis Robert, Facebook post, March 13, 2011, accessed online September 15, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=olivier%20metzner.

put the Île de Boëdic up for sale: Durand-Souffland, “L’avocat Olivier Metzner.”

“I have another project”: Olivier Metzner, quoted in Ibid.

“Just a week before this happened”: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

“drunk on his own success”: Hervé Temime, interview with author, November 30, 2015.

“not unrelated to Metzner’s suicide”: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

Noël Robin was found dead: “Suicide d’un haut-fonctionnaire, sous-directeur des affaires financières de la PJ parisienne,” Le Monde, April 2, 2013.

an early-morning stroller spotted a man: “L’ex-infirmier de Bettencourt, prévenu au procès, a tenté de se suicider,” L’Express, January 26, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/l-ex-infirmier-de-bettencourt-prevenu-au-proces-a-tente-de-se-suicider_1644579.html.

“I adored working with Madame”: Alain Thurin to Bordeaux prosecutor Gérard Aldigé, January 26, 2015, quoted in Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #3. La lettre d’Alain Thurin,” Le Monde, February 4, 2015, accessed online March 2, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/04/proces-bettencourt-3-la-lettre-dalain-thurin/.

He finally recovered and was acquitted: “L’ex-infirmier de Liliane Bettencourt relaxé,” Le Figaro, October 26, 2015, accessed online October 26, 2015, http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/10/26/abus-de-faiblesse-l-ex-infirmier-de-liliane-bettencourt-relaxe_4797180_3224.html.

CHAPTER 26: THE RECKONING

accused of cajoling €2 million: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 16.

Pelat had filed on Liliane’s behalf: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, November 7, 2016.

Liliane’s objective: Georges Kiejman, email to author, November 7, 2016; Georges Kiejman, interview with author, November 9, 2016.

passed “into another world”: Olivier Pelat testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 200–1.

having her sons file complaints: Nicolas Huc-Morel and Cédric Labrousse, Conclusions de parties civiles, January–February 2015, 8.

Françoise herself was a plaintiff: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 2.

accused of abusing the weakness of Liliane Bettencourt: Ibid., 100.

€173 million remained in his possession: Huc-Morel and Larbousse, Conclusions, 35.

that designation, potentially worth more than €1 billion: Ibid., 35.

a tough, sometimes combative judge: Details on Roucou from “Denis Roucou, l’homme qui devra juger de la moralité de l’entourage de Liliane Bettencourt,” Le Figaro, January 26, 2015.

“Roucou cannot abide him”: Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #8. Bilan à mi-parcours,” Le Monde, February 10, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/10/proces-bettencourt-8-bilan-a-mi-parcours/.

“I didn’t lead the life of some little marquis”: All quotes in this paragraph from François-Marie Banier testimony, January 28, 2015, Note d’audience, 27–30.

“That’s a very French question”: Ibid., 29.

“Where is my freedom?”: Ibid., 36.

“sharp, intelligent, droll”: Jean-Michel Ribes testimony, January 28, 2015, 33.

“Why don’t you summon the pope”: Jean-Michel Ribes, interview with author, November 18, 2015.

“when I lit a cigarette”: Corinne Paradis testimony, January 28, 2015, 32.

Nor did he give much attention: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, interview with author, July 18, 2016.

“Banier used violent language”: Monique de Libouton deposition, September 15, 2010, read aloud in court on February 4, 2015, Note d’audience, 99.

“It’s slanderous!”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 4, 2015, Note d’audience, 99.

Gaspard repeated the claims: Gaspard testimony, February 2, 2015, Ibid., 88–92.

“It never existed”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Ibid., 86–87.

In an adoption simple: Nicolas Huc-Morel, interview with author, November 26, 2015.

he might have mentioned adoption: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 71.

“Banier was not adopted”: Nicolas Huc-More, quoted in “Liliane Bettencourt est une ‘victime’ ni plus ni moins, selon ses avocats,” L’Express, February 2, 2015, accessed online October 5, 2016, http://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/1/societe/liliane-bettencourt-est-une-victime-ni-plus-ni-moins-selon-ses-avocats_1653327.html.

“adoption requires the accord of the family”: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, June 6, 2016.

“These are people seeking revenge”: François-Marie Banier testimony, January 28, 2015, Note d’audience, 37.

she repeated the charges: Françoise Meyers testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 61–65.

“a daughter who loves her mother so tenderly”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audence, 217.

“a woman who wanted to share things with me”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, 70–71.

“It gave her pleasure to give me money”: François-Marie Banier testimony, January 28, 2015, Note d’audience, 36.

“things I could never have had”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 72.

“When I refuse, it’s like denying”: Ibid., 80.

in the wake of the Formentor accident: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 14.

shortly after André’s death: Ibid., 154.

“Madame Bettencourt had full control”: François-Marie Banier testimony, quoted in “Procès Bettencourt: le truculent François-Marie Banier à la barre,” Bfmtv.com, January 28, 2015, accessed online October 8, 2016, http://www.bfmtv.com/societe/proces-bettencourt-le-truculent-francois-marie-banier-a-la-barre-860087.html#.

“Do you think the people at L’Oréal kept a nutcase around”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 2, 2015, Note d’audience, 75.

the confirmation of something she had already granted him: Pierre Cornut-Gentille and Laurent Merlet, Conclusions subsidiaires au fond aux fins de relaxe, January 26, 2015, 4.

“She told me five or six days later”: François-Marie Banier testimony, February 3, 2015, Note d’audience, 84.

two paintings by Jean Arp and Max Ernst: Inventory of gifts received by Martin d’Orgeval in Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 19.

as much as €25,000 a day: Nicolas Huc-Morel courtroom commentary, May 20, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

Banier’s toutou: Monique de Libouton deposition, September 15, 2015.

“I never saw Liliane for her money”: Martin d’Orgeval testimony, January 28, 2015, Note d’audience, 40.

“I knew nothing about the conditions”: Martin d’Orgeval testimony, February 3, 2015, Ibid., 98.

“I knew Liliane was helping François-Marie”: Ibid., 97.

Under psychiatric treatment: Claire Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 137.

“I never negotiated for my testimony”: Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 141.

called Thibout “bipolar”: Eve du Breuil testimony, January 29, 2015, Note d’audience, 53.

called her story “nonsense”: Thibout testimony, February 10, 2015, 136.

It was all Banier’s fault: Ibid., 133.

“omnipresent and had a terrible hold”: Ibid., 133, 135.

“not there to protect [Madame Bettencourt]”: Ibid., 139.

She repeated her oft-told tale: Ibid., 134–35.

That sum consisted of the €5 million donation: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 18.

charged with tax fraud: Ibid., 140–41.

He justified the €5 million gift: Ibid., 120–23.

finally realized it was a “bad idea”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 201–3.

“Granted, she’s an elderly lady”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 4, 2015, quoted in Michel Deléan, “Procès Bettencourt: les enregistrements refont surface,” Mediapart, February 10, 2015, accessed online October 6, 2016, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/050215/proces-bettencourt-les-enregistrements-refont-surface?onglet=full.

denial of her “lying denunciations”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 18, 2015, Note d’audience, 213.

“It’s easier to attack an underling”: Ibid.

“I can’t prove to you that I did not take this money”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 16, 2015, Note d’audience, 202.

“not given this money to Éric Woerth”: Patrice de Maistre testimony, February 18, 2015, Note d’audience, 214.

“I never received any cash from Patrice de Maistre”: Éric Woerth testimony, February 10, 2015, Note d’audience, 142–45.

“he was in an unreal world”: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

seventeen witnesses and five medical experts: Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 13–19.

delivered a sweeping condemnation: Benoît Ducos-Ader plea, quoted in Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #14. Les parties civiles et les énergumènes,” Le Monde website, February 19, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/19/proces-bettencourt-14-les-parties-civiles-et-les-energumenes/.

The most withering indictment: Gérard Aldigé summation, quoted in Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt #15. Le réquisitoire du parquet en ses tunnels,” Le Monde website, February 21, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/02/21/proces-bettencourt-15-le-requisitoire-du-parquet-en-ses-tunnels/.

“One might find it shocking”: Laurent Merlet plea, quoted in “Procès Bettencourt: Pour la défense de Banier, la milliardaire a décidé ‘de le couvrir d’or,’” 20minutes.fr, February 25, 2015, accessed online March 1, 2015, http://www.20minutes.fr/bordeaux/1549787-20150225-proces-bettencourt-defense-banier-milliardaire-decide-couvrir-or.

“an impulsive man”: Pierre Cornut-Gentille plea, quoted in Aude Courtin, “Procès Bettencourt: le ‘brillant’ De Maistre et ‘l’excessif’ Banier,” Sud Ouest, February 25, 2015.

The verdict that Roucou and his associates handed down: Sentencing details from Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 269–82.

The magistrates voiced their “strong suspicion”: Ibid., 161.

“totally recovered [his] honor”: Éric Woerth, quoted in Franck Johannès, “Procès Bettencourt: relaxe pour Eric Woerth, prison pour François-Marie Banier,” Le Monde, May 29, 2015.

“Yes, he was declared not guilty”: Antoine Gillot, interview with author, July 20, 2015.

Cornut-Gentille told him to pack a bag: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

“judged from the beginning”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, July 18, 2015.

Banier’s finances as ruined as his reputation: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

As he descended the courthouse steps: Scene as described in Ibid.; François-Marie Banier, telephone conversation with author, November 3, 2016.

All three cases resulted in acquittals: In an unusual move, the Bordeaux prosecutor appealed the acquittals of Bonnefoy and the journalists, as well as that of Prévost-Desprez. Both cases are scheduled for retrial in 2017.

“French justice finds it very hard to convict politicians”: Edwy Plenel, conversation with author, November 4, 2015.

CHAPTER 27: THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

his two most recent photo books: Imprudences (Göttingen: Steidl, 2015); Never Stop Dancing (Göttingen: Steidl, 2015).

Monday, November 30, 2015: From author’s notes taken on the Place de la République.

“the street is like a studio”: François-Marie Banier, conversation with author, November 30, 2015.

“There is something disturbing”: Ibid.

“So, Monsieur Banier, you’re making money?”: Dialogue from author’s notes, November 30, 2015.

he was once slapped in the face: François-Marie Banier to Liliane Bettencourt, December 29, 2003, Correspondance échangée entre Madame Liliane Bettencourt et Monsieur François-Marie Banier pour la période allant de 1989 à 2010, vol. 2.

“Because they like celebrity”: François-Marie Banier, conversation with author, August 11, 2016. Jean-Marc Roberts recounts scenes of passersby cheering and encouraging Banier, in François-Marie (Paris: Gallimard, 2011), 46.

“their truth”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“a hugely gifted artist”: Graydon Carter, “Editor’s Letter: Paris Is Burning,” Vanity Fair, November 2010.

“He tries to make contact”: Jan Hoet, postscript to Banier, Imprudences.

“Nobody else in the world”: François-Marie Banier, conversation with author, July 18, 2016.

“The thing that marks the originality”: Jean-Luc Monterosso, email to author, October 11, 2016.

gave Banier a major exhibit: Ibid.

the price Madame Bettencourt paid: Liliane Bettencourt to Jean-Luc Monterosso, April 11, 2007, in investigative file; Michel Guerrin, “L’exposition Banier aura-t-elle lieu?” Le Monde, February 11, 2016.

“a great French artist”: Jean-Luc Monterosso, email to author, October 11, 2016.

“one of our biggest successes”: Guerrin, “L’exposition Banier.”

second exhibition was canceled: Jean-Luc Monterosso, email to author, October 11, 2016.

buying hundreds of copies: Guerrin, “L’exposition Banier.”

“all of a sudden, he didn’t sell anything”: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

“For photographers from the agencies”: Guy Marineau, email to author, October 26, 2015.

sold about 70,000 copies: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

fewer than 2,000 copies: Michel Guerrin, “François-Marie Banier le mauvais génie,” M Magazine du Monde, October 16, 2010.

“Writing is a necessity for me”: François-Marie Banier, interview with author, September 28, 2015.

“a very good writer”. . . “has trouble knowing who he is”: Dominique Fernandez, interview with author, October 31, 2015.

Banier replied, “Writer”: François-Marie Banier, interview with Michel Guerrin, “Il y a toujours eu du vacarme derrière moi,” Le Monde, September 12, 2009, 21.

“Promoting a book may be exhausting”: Liliane Bettencourt, fax to François-Marie Banier, September 30, 2006, Correspondance, vol. 2.

“someone who is rather elusive”: Martin d’Orgeval, interview with author, December 15, 2015.

“different from most people”: Pascal Greggory, interview with author, December 12, 2015.

“Everybody who met François-Marie”: Diane von Furstenberg, telephone interview with author, December 23, 2015.

“Banier is an excessive man”: Laurent Merlet, interview with author, August 3, 2015.

CHAPTER 28: THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE

died of a degenerative brain disease: Corinne Audouin, “Mort de Carlos Vejarano, l’ex-gestionnaire de l’île d’Arros,” FranceInter.fr, April 19, 2016, accessed online April 19, 2016, https://www.franceinter.fr/justice/mort-de-carlos-vejarano-l-ex-gestionnaire-de-l-ile-d-arros.

was tried separately: “L’ex-infirmier de Liliane Bettencourt relaxé,” Le Figaro, October 26, 2015, accessed online October 26, 2015, http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/10/26/01016-20151026ARTFIG00010-l-ex-infirmier-de-liliane-bettencourt-attend-son-jugement.php.

both abandoned their appeals: “Un notaire de Liliane Bettencourt renonce à faire appel de sa condamnation,” France Soir, May 8, 2016, accessed online May 9, 2016, http://www.francesoir.fr/societe-faits-divers/un-notaire-de-liliane-bettencourt-renonce-faire-appel-de-sa-condamnation.

De Maistre’s withdrawal followed two months of negotiations: “De Maistre conclut un accord avec la famille Bettencourt et renonce à son appel,” Le Point, October 29, 2015, accessed online October 30, 2015, http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/patrice-de-maistre-conclut-un-accord-et-juridique-avec-la-famille-bettencourt-29-10-2015-1977867_23.php.

reportedly cut to €5 million: Lauren Valdiguié, “Banier, condamné heureux,” Journal du Dimanche, August 28, 2016, 16.

he was officially stripped of the Légion d’honneur: Journal Officiel, no. 0280, December 2, 2016.

negotiations had been initiated: “De Maistre conclut un accord,” Le Point, October 29, 2015.

“hardly the least important objective”: Patrick Ouart, interview with author, November 10, 2015.

de Maistre would never have to appear in court: Valdiguié, “Banier, condamné heureux,” 16.

training sessions with a communications expert: Richard Malka, interview with author, June 9, 2016.

He pronounced the words “no comment”: Jean-Pierre Meyers, Procès verbal d’audition de témoin, May 18, 2016.

putting Françoise Meyers under formal investigation: Dominique Simonnot, “Bettencourt et ses témoins piégés,” Canard Enchaîné, July 20, 2016, 6.

“Do you believe the testimony in your favor”: Exchange between Judge Le Loire and Françoise Meyers, as reported in Ibid.

“The daughter comes out fine”: Claire Thibout, quoted in Ibid.

“We received less”: Henriette Youpatchou, Ibid.

called the action groundless: Jean Veil, telephone interview with author, August 25, 2016.

Françoise’s legal team was sufficiently worried: Information from persons involved in the discussion who spoke to the author on condition of anonymity.

three years in prison and a €45,000 fine: Article 434-15 of the French Code pénal.

“a private matter”: Jean-Paul Agon, interviewed by Mélanie Delattre, “Les femmes vont gagner dix ans de jeunesse,” Le Point, November 19, 2009, 90.

6.7 percent annual increase in sales: L’Oréal annual reports from 2008 through 2015.

“Françoise’s legal situation is a problem”: Seth Goldschlager, telephone conversation with author, October 31, 2016.

a breathtaking farewell present: Donation par Madame Bettencourt au profit de Monsieur Owen-Jones, May 9, 2005, in investigative file.

in addition to his €381 million in stock options: Marie-France Etchegoin, Un milliard de secrets (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2011), 195; Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme, with staff of Mediapart, L’Affaire Bettencourt: un scandale d’état (Paris: Don Quichotte, 2010), 261.

“affection and personal gratitude”: Liliane Bettencourt, Donation par Madame Bettencourt.

discovered the paperwork: Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, interview with author, September 24, 2015.

“they limited the damage”: Ibid.

Sales grew sixfold during his tenure: Based on figures provided by L’Oreal’s financial department and L’Oréal annual reports, 1988–2006.

Liliane Bettencourt’s personal fortune rose: Arfi, Lhomme, et al., Affaire Bettencourt, 260.

Asked by a journalist: Lindsay Owen-Jones, inverviewed by Hervé Gattegno, “Affaire Bettencourt: Lindsay Owen-Jones parle,” Le Point, September 30, 2010, accessed online February 14, 2017, http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/affaire-bettencourt-lindsay-owen-jones-parle-30-09-2010-1246321_28.php.

One source close to the Meyers family: Author interview with source requesting anonymity.

acts that occurred after September 1, 2006: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bordeaux, Jugement correctionnel, May 28, 2015, 3.

Owen-Jones retired in 2012 to Lugano: Bruno Abescat, “Exil fiscal: ils font le grand saut,” L’Expansion, October 4, 2012, accessed online September 26, 2016, http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/display.php?url=http://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/economie/exil-fiscal-ils-font-le-grand-saut_343631.html.

“Today, I am here, and he is in Lugano!”: Patrice de Maistre, quoted in Michel Deléan, “Procès Bettencourt: où l’on reparle de Nicolas Sarkozy,” Mediapart, February 18, 2015, accessed online October 6, 2016, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/180215/proces-bettencourt-ou-l-reparle-de-nicolas-sarkozy?onglet=full.

bought back 8 percent: “L’Oréal rachète 8% de son capital à Nestlé,” Le Monde, February 11, 2014.

“This family has always delegated”: Marie-France Lavarini (vice president of the communications agency Ella Factory), interview with author, September 9, 2015.

Jean-Victor, now thirty, is a fashion maven: Nicole Vulser, “Jean-Victor Meyers, un héritier pur cachemire,” Le Monde, January 5, 2015.

Nicolas, twenty-eight, who has apprenticed at Swatch headquarters: Ibid.

never talked to them about their future: Jean-Victor Meyers testimony, January 30, 2015, Note d’audience, 68.

In his eloquent final plea: Richard Malka plea, May 24, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

“one of history’s most beautiful hatreds”: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Les dieux grecs: généalogies (Paris: Editions Christian, 2001), 145.

“The reality of this family is not peace”: Richard Malka plea, May 24, 2016, from author’s trial notes.

CHAPTER 29: FAREWELL TO PARADISE?

Banier was spending this time at Le Patron: Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes and descriptions in this chapter are from the author’s visit and conversations with François-Marie Banier, August 11, 2016.

They paid 2,650,000 francs: Banier enquête patrimoniale, June 4, 2009.

Vanessa Paradis calls me on the phone: Vanessa Paradis, telephone conversation with author, August 17, 2016.

CHAPTER 30: THE VERDICT

The judge pronounces all three men guilty: Sentencing details from Cour d’appel de Bordeaux, Arrêt Nº 714, August 24, 2016, 77–90.

not “determining” factors: Ibid., 58.

the judges threw out the civil damages: Ibid., 84.

“I think of Liliane”: François-Marie Banier, conversation with author, August 24, 2016.

“It’s a total slap in the face”: Laurent Merlet declaration, August 24, 2016, from author’s notes.

“Banier is a criminal”: Arnaud Dupin declaration, August 24, 2016, from author’s notes.

held in almost complete isolation: Georges Kiejman, telephone conversation with author, January 19, 2017; Claude Delay Tubiana, interviews with author, September 10, 2015, and January 19, 2017.

no one seriously expects: Pierre Cornut-Gentille, telephone interview with author, October 6, 2016.

“I have a novel to finish”: Quotes in this paragraph are from author interview with François-Marie Banier, September 24, 2016.

“I don’t want to talk about him”: Liliane Bettencourt deposition, January 19, 2012.

EPILOGUE: WINGS

Françoise and her son Jean-Victor take her to lunch: Details based on photographs taken October 21, 2016, by Paul Hubble for Getty Images, accessed online October 23, 2016, http://www.gettyimages.fr/photos/paul-hubble-bettencourt?excludenudity=true&family=editorial&page=1&phrase=paul%20hubble%20bettencourt&sort=best#license.

“Serene”: Françoise Meyers, interviewed by Raphaëlle Bacquet, “Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: ‘Allons-y, mieux vaut tout purger,’” M Magazine du Monde, March 10, 2012, 42.

Liliane lives with the dead souls from her past: Details and quotes in this paragraph from Olivier Pelat, interviews with author, November 4, 2015, and August 24, 2016.