PARIS (AP) -- They were supposed to be confidential chats between France's richest woman and her financial advisers, with topics ranging from secret Swiss bank accounts to her gift of a private luxury island to a friend.
But someone slipped a recorder into the room, taping everything.
The butler says he did it.
His secret recordings, recently leaked to the media, have embarrassed the French political establishment at the highest levels and prompted tax authorities to announce a thorough audit of L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's fortune.
The case started when Bettencourt's daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, alleged that a charming society man had conned her 87-year-old, mentally frail mother out of cash and artworks worth euro1 billion ($1.2 billion).
The younger Bettencourt says she just wants to protect her elderly mother. And the elder argues that she has her wits about her and can do whatever she wants with her money.
It's a dilemma familiar to many families -- but Bettencourt is No. 17 on Forbes magazine's list of the richest people worldwide, with a net worth of $20 billion
Bettencourt-Meyers says that if the court orders Banier to return the gifts, she wants the money to go to charity.
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