France’s richest woman is heir to French cosmetic giant, L’Oreal, founded by her late father. She became the focus of a sensational family scandal; in December mother and only daughter and heir, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyer, reconciled and dropped all court cases against each other. Daughter had petitioned courts in 2008 to investigate reported $1 billion worth of cash and gifts her mother allegedly gave to Francois-Marie Banier, 62, a well-known photographer, writer and painter whom she befriended. Daughter claimed, and Bettencourt hotly denied, that Banier took advantage of her mother, who became a widow in 2007.