Who is François-Marie Banie, the lover of Liliane Bettencourt? Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress of L’Oreal, was acquainted with François-Marie Banier.
The group connected to Liliane Bettencourt questioned her relationship with the aforementioned author for a long time.
A controversial relationship ended between a photographer on trial for defrauding a billionaire.
François-Marie Banier was ultimately found guilty of money laundering and abuse of vulnerability as a consequence of his lawsuit against Liliane Bettencourt.
Liliane Henriette Charlotte Bettencourt, a French heiress, socialite, and entrepreneur, was born. She was one of the major shareholders of L’Oréal.
She was the richest woman and the fourteenth richest person in the world at the time of her death, with a net worth of US$44.3 billion.
Let’s find out more about Liliane Bettencourt’s boyfriend and other intimate aspects of his life.
Who Is François-Marie Banie, the Boyfriend of Liliane Bettencourt?
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Born in Paris on June 27, 1947, François-Marie Banier is a French dramatist, photographer, artist, and novelist.
Early in his photography career, Banier made connections with well-known artists such as Salvador Dalí and Marie-Laure de Noailles.
At the age of twenty-two, his first book, Les Résidences secondaires ou la Vie distraite, was released. Since then, Banier has written seven additional novels and three stage plays.
When Banier was hired by Egoiste to photograph Liliane Bettencourt for one of their magazines in 1987, he got to meet her for the first time.
Bettencourt’s biographer, Tom Sancton, claims that “they just kind of hit it off” with NPR. On the other hand, he may be described as blunt, flamboyant, and, to be honest, erratic in social situations.
I think he made her feel a little uneasy. Compared to her usual kowtowing, this was a refreshing change.
Scandal, Politics, and Affairs
In June 2010, amid the Bettencourt incident, new evidence about her butler’s audio recordings was made public, sparking a high-level French political dispute.
Reportedly recorded conversations between Bettencourt and Patrice de Maistre, her financial adviser, raise the possibility that Bettencourt may have avoided paying taxes by keeping a significant amount of cash in unreported Swiss bank accounts.
The French budget minister Éric Woerth, who was attempting to have his wife recruited to handle Bettencourt’s money while running a high-profile campaign to discover wealthy tax evaders, is said to have spoken with Bettencourt during the taped discussion.
Moreover, Bettencourt received a €30 million tax relief when Woerth was the finance minister.
When Bettencourt’s former accountant Claire Thibout said in an interview with Mediapart, a French investigative website, that conservative French politicians often received envelopes packed with cash at Bettencourt’s Neuilly-sur-Seine house, the controversy intensified in July 2010.
Now, where is Banner?
On May 29, 2015, Banier was found guilty of money laundering and power abuse in relation to a plan to defraud Bettencourt of millions of dollars.
He was sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay Bettencourt €158 million in damages.
On August 24, 2016, Banier’s lawyers were able to successfully contest the ruling. Instead of serving the first three years in jail, he was handed a four-year suspended sentence along with a €375k fine.
Banier has continued to pursue his creative and photography endeavors after the Bettencourt Affair. His work was included at the 2020 International Festival of Fashion, Photography, and Fashion Accessories.
Banier’s artwork was also on display in the Arthur Rimbaud Museum’s 2021 Portraits d’écrivains show. Netflix docuseries The Billionaire, The Butler, and The Boyfriend chronicle the Bettencourt Affair and Banier’s trial.
The software becomes accessible on the previously specified platform on November 8, 2023.
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