In June 2010, Ms. Bettencourt became embroiled in a high-level French political scandal after other details of the tape recordings made by her butler became public.
She alleged that Mr Woerth, while acting as treasurer for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), was given an envelope containing €150,000 in cash in March 2007 towards the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Following these allegations, French police raided the home and office of Mr de Maistre, who heads Clymène, the company owned by Ms Bettencourt to manage her wealth.
In 2013, the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, a former minister, Éric Woerth, a prosecutor, Philippe Courroye and the former director of the DCRI, Bernard Squarcini, were targeted by a procedure of indictment in diverse points of the affair.
[8] In 2015 François-Marie Banier was convicted of 'abuse of weakness' of Liliane Bettencourt, prosecutor Gérard Aldigé stating he had "imposed his control over her like a spider spinning its web.