Françoise Betancourt-Meyers, French, source of wealth: L'Oréal
In April 2022, Françoise Betancourt-Meyers and her family were ranked 14th on the 2022 Forbes Global Billionaires list with US$74.8 billion.
Personal experience.
Meyers inherited Bettencourt's fortune after her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, passed away in September 2017 at the age of 94.
Since 2007, however, Meyers and Bettencourt have become estranged and disputes have arisen over their assets and other issues. Meyers also initiated a lawsuit over fears that Betancourt, whose health had deteriorated, was being used by someone close to him. During the last few years of Betancourt's life, Meyers' relationship with her mother was repaired.
Meyers was also a scholar and author of several books on the relationship between the Greek gods and Judeo-Christianity.
According to the latest figures, Betancourt Meyers is still the richest woman in the world. Her name may be unfamiliar to many, but not to the companies she founded.
She is the only daughter of the founder of the French L'Oréal group, Eugène Belair, and is the heiress to the L'Oréal group, in which she owns 27.5% of the shares.
Having been with the group since the nineties, Meyers is now 69 years old and is a strong woman in the workplace.
Family conflicts.
The Mediapart website quotes a taped conversation between Liliana and his financial adviser Patrick Demeister, who told Liliana that he intended to transfer some 80 million euros "hidden" in a Swiss bank to a Singaporean bank in order to continue evading taxes, in view of a tax cooperation agreement between France and Switzerland. He told Lilliana that he intended to transfer some 80 million euros "hidden" in Swiss banks to a Singaporean bank in order to continue evading taxes. "We have to take care of your Swiss bank account, we can't be caught before Christmas," said De Maistre, "in Singapore they can't find anything." The conversations, believed to have been recorded by Liliana's former housekeeper between May 2009 and May 2010, were given to Meyer and then exposed by her. The housekeeper was arrested by police on the 16th of this month. Liliana's lawyer, George Kierzman, said Liliana accused her daughter of invasion of privacy, theft and falsification of evidence. "We can assume that a ring used for wiretapping was set up by the daughter's order to serve her interests" and that "the possibility that the tape was tampered with cannot be ruled out".
Key achievements.
As the new richest woman in the world, Meyers' mother was also the number one wealthy woman in the world and has long held the number one spot, even overtaking the owner of luxury goods LV to top the richest man in France four years ago.
We all know that L'Oréal is one of the world's largest cosmetics companies, with a 100-year history that has also produced two of the world's top female millionaires and led the Meyers family for three whole generations.
With a diversified approach to business, L'Oréal has a global footprint, employs around 60,000 people and generates sales of US$33.4 billion a year alone.
I'm sure every woman knows the L'Oréal Group well and has bought the skincare and cosmetics products it produces. L'Oréal Paris, one of the Fortune 500 companies, has been "specializing" in women's business for centuries. The L'Oréal Group today has numerous brands that are well known to everyone, such as L'Oréal, Lancôme, Kiehl's, YSL, Maybelline and Armani, to name but a few.
