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July 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Mr Sarkozy and his wife were away on holiday in Canada when judge Gentil and a
dozen fraud squad officers burst into their home in the chic 16th
arrondissement, before moving onto the Arnaud, Claude and associates law
firm which Mr Sarkozy – a lawyer by training – part owns, and his offices in
rue de Miromesnil near the Champs-Elysées.
Several former employees of Mrs Bettencourt and her late husband André have
the told the judge that Mr Sarkozy discreetly turned up in person to their
mansion in Neuilly at least twice before his election in February and April
2007. These staff members include her former chauffeur, nurse and butler.
Days after losing his presidential immunity, Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry
Herzog, sent the judge his diary in the weeks before his 2007 election,
saying it proved that no “supposedly secret rendezvous” to receive
illicit funding could have taken place.
There is only one official mention of a meeting between Mr Sarkozy and the
Bettencourts in the diary, which shows he paid a brief visit on February 24,
2007, two months before the first round of presidential elections. Mr Herzog
claimed this was a “courtesy call” that lasted 20 to 25 minutes,
that any other meetings would have been mentioned, and that diary showed it
was “materially impossible” for Mr Sarkozy to have been present in
other dates mentioned by staff.
Yesterday, Mr Herzog confirmed the former president, who lost his re-election
battle to Socialist François Hollande last month, was away in Canada with
his family.
“These raids … will prove to be, as expected, futile,” he added.
Mrs Bettencourt was placed under legal guardianship in October, after a
marathon legal battle over her 16 billion-euro (£12.8 billion) fortune. It
began when her estranged daughter Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers accused a
society photographer and other advisers of taking advantage of the heiress,
who suffers from dementia.
Judge Gentil has cited two suspect withdrawals of 400,000 euros each from
Swiss bank accounts on behalf of Mrs Bettencourt’s former wealth manager
Patrice de Maistre, also under investigation. He spent almost three months
in prison while the judge repeatedly quizzed him on where the money went.
The first withdrawal was made on February 5, 2007, two days before a meeting
between Mr de Maistre and Eric Woerth, at the time Mr Sarkozy’s campaign
treasurer.
Mr Woerth later became labour minister but resigned in 2010 over the
mushrooming funding scandal and in 2011 police carried out searches of his
home and offices of Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party. Mrs Bettencourt’s accountant,
Claire Thibout, has testified to having been asked in 2007 to provide
150,000 euros to Mr Woerth. He faces charges of receiving cash payments and
a conflict of interest. He denies any wrongdoing.
The second questionable withdrawal was made on April 26, 2007 – four days
after the first round of the presidential election that Mr Sarkozy
eventually won.
The judge is also intrigued by a suspicious diary entry by Mrs Bettencourt’s
photographer friend François-Marie Banier, who wrote on April 26, 2007, that
the heiress mentioned a “request for money” from Mr Sarkozy to
which she “said yes”.
French law limits individual donations to political parties to 7,500 euros
(£6,000) per person per year and 4,600 euros (£3,700) during political
campaigns. Only 150 euros (£120) may be given in cash.
Mr Sarkozy is potentially facing questioning in a separate probe into who
ordered French intelligence services to unlawfully identify the source of
journalists investigating the Bettencourt scandal.
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