Police officers investigating allegations of tax evasion and illegal political donations by the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, detained her wealth manager, her former tax lawyer, a property manager and her close companion, a celebrity photographer, for questioning Thursday. The scandal has touched the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, after news emerged of tapes made secretly by Bettencourt's former butler that suggested efforts to evade taxes, and after a former accountant for her said that envelopes of cash for the 2007 presidential campaign had been given to Eric Woerth, the treasurer of Sarkozy's party. Woerth, who is now also labor minister, Sarkozy and lawyers for Bettencourt have denied any wrongdoing. But Woerth, at the president's urging, has said he will resign as party treasurer at the end of this month. Woerth's wife, Florence, has quit her job as a financial adviser to Bettencourt. The four people detained Thursday were being questioned at the Paris office of the financial crimes unit and could be held for up to 48 hours before the police must decide whether to press charges. They are Bettencourt's financial adviser, Patrice de Maistre; her former tax lawyer, Fabrice Goguel; celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier; and Carlos Vejarano, the manager of an island in Seychelles that the tapes suggest Bettencourt owns as a tax dodge and gave to Banier. The tapes also indicate that Bettencourt approved moving more than $100 million into Swiss bank accounts to avoid French taxes. The scandal began with a lawsuit by Bettencourt's estranged daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, accusing Banier of manipulating her mother, 87, into giving him gifts and annuities worth more than $1 billion. Bettencourt-Meyers has asked a judge to declare her mother incompetent to manage her fortune, estimated at more than $20 billion, while Bettencourt has criticized her daughter's 'vile doggedness' in a recent television interview. At this point, the police have opened three investigations. Bettencourt said that her records would be open for the police and that she had ordered an 'independent audit.' The police have also searched the houses and offices of Bettencourt, de Maistre and Banier. 