BORDEAUX: The trial of 10 people accused of exploiting France’s richest woman Liliane Bettencourt opened on Monday with the revelation that one of the accused had tried to kill himself on the eve of his appearance.

Alain Thurin, 64, a former nurse for the frail L’Oreal heiress, tried to hang himself in the woods near his house, said presiding judge Denis Roucou.

A police source said Thurin was in a critical condition.

He is one of 10 members of Bettencourt’s entourage accused of taking advantage of the 92-year-old billionaire’s growing mental fragility in an explosive legal and political drama that even dragged in former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

A bitter mother-daughter feud, a butler’s betrayal, advancing dementia, unscrupulous friends and politicians: these are only some threads of the complex web surrounding the world’s 12th biggest fortune that the court will have to untangle.

The intricate tale began with one of the accused, Francois-Marie Banier, a celebrity photographer who became a close confidant of Bettencourt.

The heiress, worth an estimated $39 billion (33 billion euros) according to Forbes magazine, showered Banier with gifts, such as paintings by Picasso and Matisse, life insurance funds and millions of euros in cash.

Published in Dawn January 27th, 2015

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