Sarkozy:Secret envelopes stuffed with cash
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President Nicolas Sarkozy is reeling at the centre of a corruption row that makes expenses claims for moat cleaning and duck houses look positively virtuous.
French papers are full of stories about envelopes crammed with money, an alleged £1billion con at one of the world's most glamorous companies, a private island in the Seychelles and secret tapes.
As the president, Mr Sarkozy is immune from prosecution.
But with an approval rating plummeting to an all-time low of 26%, he is unlikely to have that legal protection much longer.
Mr Sarkozy is the subject of a criminal inquiry after claims that he regularly received bundles of money from the country's wealthiest woman, though he strongly denies any wrongdoing.
Detectives are examining the accounts of Liliane Bettencourt, the 87-year-old billionaire L'Oreal heiress. She is said to have provided Mr Sarkozy, 55, with "manila envelopes stuffed with cash" following dinner parties at her mansion in the upmarket Paris suburb of N e u i l l y- s u r -Seine - where the president was once mayor and has a home.
It means the Elysee Palace soap opera now resembles a period farce with Mr Sarkozy as Louis XVI, the high living king who was guillotined in the French Revolution in 1793.
In a detailed testament to police, Mrs Bettencourt's accountant, Claire Thibout, said: "Everyone in the household knew that Sarkozy also saw the Bettencourts for money. "He was a regular visitor." This was exactly the kind of evidence that prompted prosecutors to launch the investigation into "financial irregularities" - especially considering one secret payment to Mr Sarkozy's presidential election campaign in 2007 was said to be worth as much as £125,000.
As well as being illegal, police think two-thirds of the payment may have come from secret Swiss accounts that Mrs Bettencourt wasn't paying tax on.
Worse still, it is claimed the "Bling Bling President" would view £125,000 as a tiny fraction of the fortune he feels he is entitled to. "Remember that this was a man who awarded himself a pay rise of 140% the moment he came to power," an impeccably-placed Elysee Palace source told the Mirror.
POWER
"He loves all the homes, private planes, luxury cars and the power that comes with being president, but more than anything else in the world Nicolas Sarkozy loves hard cash. This has been his motivation ever since he was bullied for being a poor boy in the playground.
"If anything his obsession with amassing wealth has grown."
The astonishing corruption claims came to light during a trial - now adjourned - involving Mrs Bettencourt's "special friend", François-Marie Banier.
Mr Banier is a flamboyant photographer accused by Mrs Bettencourt's daughter of exploiting her mum's poor mental state.
Angry Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers says Mr Banier accepted almost £1billion worth of "presents" from the L'Oreal heiress, including old master paintings and huge amounts of cash.
Mrs Bettencourt's "gifts" also included a holiday island in the Seychelles - one which Mrs Bettencourt also allegedly failed to declare on her tax return.
The revelations emerged in telephone calls made by Mrs Bettencourt that were secretly recorded by Pascal Bonnefoy, her once loyal butler.
More incriminating still, the 21 hours of tapes include extracts when Patrice de Maistre, Mrs Bettencourt's chief wealth manager, talks about the warm relations he enjoys with the Elysee Palace.
He suggests to Mrs Bettencourt that she should make legal donations to Mr Sarkozy's electoral campaign funds "because we need friends". Mr de Maistre also asks Mrs Bettencourt for cash to buy himself a yacht.
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Farcically, Mrs Bettencourt can often be heard on the tape asking her employees to "speak up" because of her deafness.
Ségolène Royal, Mr Sarkozy's Socialist opponent in the 2007 general election, said the tapes proved the "absolute corruption of the Sarkozy regime", while Francois Bayrou, the other big name contender in the poll, said they had sparked a "moral and political crisis". Mr Sarkozy has denounced the allegations as a "libel that aims only to smear, without the slightest basis in reality".
Colleagues have stood firm, with Industry Minister Christian Estrosi accusing Mediapart - the news website that broke the story - of "fascist" tactics.
But for a self-styled man-of-the-people whose campaign slogan was "Work more, to earn more", Mr Sarkozy's record in office has been distinctly elitist.
Within days of being elected, he set off on a luxury holiday on the £1million yacht owned by Vincent Bolloré, the massively wealthy businessman. There were also celebratory parties at the swankiest restaurants and clubs of the Champs-Elysees.
One was attended by ageing singer Johnny Hallyday, the "Gallic Elvis" who regularly threatened to emigrate to Switzerland or Belgium to avoid high taxes. Mr Sarkozy insisted the entertainer should stay in France and said he was a "friend of the rich".
None more so than Carla Bruni, the ex-model whose vast personal fortune comes in no small part from the money amassed by her Italian industrialist dad.
Miss Bruni became Mr Sarkozy's third wife after a whirlwind romance of just 80 days, with the flamboyant beauty (her numerous past lovers include rockers Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton) taking on the role of a 21st century Marie Antoinette to her husband's King Louis.
Currently filming a walk-on part in a new Woody Allen film, and still recording pop songs, the champagne socialist First Lady is regularly criticised not just for her love of the limelight, but also for her expensive tastes.
Last year it emerged that she and the president were spending £660 a day on fresh flowers - even more than the whopping £460 a day Elton John admitted to blowing at the florist.
The couple also used public money to settle a £3,000 fine for late payment of electricity and gas bills.
While the French may just about be able to tolerate Carla's spendthrift ways (she does, after all, have her own private fortune) it is the glitzy lifestyle enjoyed by Mr Sarkozy and his Cabinet colleagues that have caused the most outrage.
SMOKESCREEN
It recently emerged, for example, that Christian Blanc, the Minister for Paris, spent 12,000 euros of taxpayers' money on Cuban cigars.
Alain Joyandet, the International Development Secretary, meanwhile spent 116,500 euros on a private plane to take him to the Caribbean for a meeting about the Haiti earthquake.
Both resigned - but only, it was claimed, to create a smokescreen around Employment Secretary Eric Woerth, who is said to have assisted Mrs Bettencourt in avoiding tax.
Mr Woerth and Mr Sarkozy deny any wrongdoing in their dealings with the heiress, but her accountant insists otherwise - especially when Mr Woerth's wife, Florence, worked for Mrs Bettencourt's wealth management team before her recent resignation.
Regardless of how these corruption claims pan out, French citizens are accustomed to allegations of sleaze surrounding their political leaders.
Mr Sarkozy's immediate predecessor and ally, Jacques Chirac, is still facing trial over an alleged fake jobs scheme which he is said to have used to finance his party when he was Paris mayor.
Mr Chirac, now retired from politics, denies all wrongdoing.
source mirror.co.uk
