L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt defuses scandal after being caught plotting tax evasion

The L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt  pledged on Monday to declare all of her foreign assets to comply with French laws after she was caught on tape allegedly plotting tax evasion. Transcripts of tapes published on the Mediapart website suggest Bettencourt funnelled 80 million euros into Swiss bank accounts.

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"I have decided to declare all of my family assets that are currently abroad in cooperation with the French tax authorities," the shampoo and cosmetics billionaire said in a statement.

The 87-year-old has been caught up in a storm since last week when secret tapes revealed that she had allegedly conspired to hide money in Swiss bank accounts while making donations to friends in the governing UMP party.

Bettencourt ranks 17th on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, with a fortune estimated at 16 billion euros.