2010-07-07 19:35

PARIS - A judicial official in France says prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that the country's richest woman secretly funded President Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign.

Sarkozy has denied a media report that his 2007 campaign received euro150,000 ($188,000) in secret cash from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. The report said the cash went to the treasurer of Sarkozy's conservative party UMP, Eric Woerth.

The judicial official said Wednesday the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre is conducting a preliminary probe into the allegations. The official was not authorized to be publicly named because the investigation is under way.

A scandal over Bettencourt's fortune has already destabilized Sarkozy's government.