French investigators question minister's wife

[July 21, 2010]  PARIS (AP) -- Financial police were questioning the wife of France's labor minister in an investigation into the finances of the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune.

A judicial official who could not be named says that Florence Woerth was questioned as a witness, not a suspect, about tape recordings secretly made by a former employee of heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Woerth, wife of Labor Minister Eric Woerth, worked as investment adviser to Bettencourt until the end of June. In the recordings made by a butler, the man who heads the company handling the Bettencourt fortune, Patrice de Maestre, allegedly says he hired Florence Woerth at her husband's request -- a claim the minister denies.

Allegations of tax evasion, conflict of interest and possible illegal campaign financing are at the heart of the case.

[Associated Press; By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD]

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