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.
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.