Nicolas Sarkozy's Home Is Searched in Financing Inquiry PARIS - The French police searched the home and office of former President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday as part of what his lawyer confirmed was the longstanding investigation into allegations of illegal financing in his 2007 presidential campaign. Mr. Sarkozy was in Quebec, on vacation with his family, said the lawyer, Thierry Herzog. The financing inquiry is just one of several investigations Mr. Sarkozy is likely to face now that he has lost presidential immunity. Some of the accusations date from the 1990s, including allegations of kickbacks in a Pakistani submarine deal when he was a budget minister. On Tuesday, the police were searching for evidence regarding allegations that staff members working for Liliane Bettencourt, 89, the heiress to the L'Oréal fortune, gave cash-stuffed envelopes to Mr. Sarkozy or his aides to finance his successful 2007 campaign for president. There are also charges that transfers from Swiss bank accounts used by the Bettencourt family may have gone to Mr. Sarkozy or his campaign. There are strict limits on political contributions from individuals, and they must be recorded. Éric Woerth, a former minister and treasurer of Mr. Sarkozy's party, the Union for a Popular Movement, has been under investigation since February over allegations that he got illegal campaign financing from Ms. Bettencourt. Mr. Woerth has denied charges of illegal activity. Mr. Sarkozy has also denied all charges of illegal financing. He has said indignantly that he accepted no cash-stuffed envelopes from anyone in the Bettencourt household and that his campaign aides did not, either. Recently, Mr. Sarkozy handed over his diary from the period, when he was interior minister, to the investigating magistrates in an effort to rebut witness accounts that he had attended meetings in the Bettencourt house in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he used to be mayor. The searches were conducted by about 10 financial-crimes officers, accompanied by Jean-Michel Gentil, the investigating magistrate. They first went through a house rented by Mr. Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, in a gated community in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris on Tuesday morning. Later they searched the offices of a law firm where Mr. Sarkozy is a partner as well as offices he recently rented in Paris. His presidential immunity expired in mid-June, after he lost a re-election bid to François Hollande, a Socialist. The frail Ms. Bettencourt was placed under legal guardianship last October, after her daughter accused advisers and hangers-on of manipulating her for personal gain. These charges of political corruption emerged from testimony resulting from the effort by Ms. Bettencourt's daughter to have her put into guardianship. Mr. Gentil is looking into two withdrawals more than $500,000, each from Swiss bank accounts by someone close to Ms. Bettencourt's former financial adviser, who has also been charged. The first withdrawal on Feb. 7, 2007, was days before the adviser, Patrice de Maistre, met with Mr. Woerth, and the second was on April 26, 2007, four days after the first round of the presidential election that Mr. Sarkozy won 10 days later. Mr. Sarkozy is also facing questions about the use of the secret services by some in his government to listen in to the telephone conversations of Le Monde journalists to try to discover their sources about the Bettencourt affair. French investigations can be lengthy and do not always lead to prosecutions, let alone convictions.