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WE'RE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE

L'Oreal Cosmetics
Sued Over Boycoft

I

wo French brothers have
filed a $100 million civil ac-
tion suit against L'Oreal,
alleging that the world's
largest cosmetics manufacturer
bribed Syrian authorities to get
off the blacklist of companies
that comply with the Arab boy-
cott of Israel.
The suit, filed Feb. 2 in New
York State Supreme Court by
Jean and David Frydman, also
charges fraud, saying the firm
forged papers to remove Jean
Frydman from L'Oreal's board
because he was a resident of Is-
rael.
The suit was filed in New
York because, the brothers say,
New York State and U.S. anti-
boycott law were violated by
L'Oreal's American licensee, Cos-
mair.
The Frydmans also filed a
complaint some months ago
against L'Oreal with the U.S. Of-
fice of Boycott Compliance in
Washington.
The New York suit is the lat-
est leg in a convoluted saga that
travels from Paris to Israel and
the United States.
In addition to alleging fraud
and other improprieties, the
complaint refers at length to
L'Oreal's founders and execu-
tives and their alleged ties to
World War II Nazi collaborators.
Cosmair issued a statement
last week saying that the com-
plaint "clearly misstates" the
U.S. firm's activities.
The firm said, "Cosmair, Inc.
is a U.S. company operating ex-
clusively in the American mar-
ket" and "has no business
interest in the Middle East."
Moreover, it said, "Cosmair
has a longstanding policy for-
bidding discrimination on any
grounds including race, creed
and nationality."
And it denied ties to a de-
ceased chief executive of L'Ore-
al who served prison time for
war crimes.
Will Maslow, editor of the
American Jewish Congress'Boy-
cott Report and who has been an
adviser to the Frydman family,
said, "We're delighted that the
suit has been brought and we
hope that the American courts
will provide the Frydman broth-
ers with the justice that the
French courts were unable to
give them."
Jean Frydman, who lives in
Israel and also retains French
citizenship, was a board mem-
ber in France of L'Oreal and was
a longtime friend of L'Oreal
Chairman Bernard Dalle.
In 1990, the two entered into
a separate business agreement
to set up a film company called

Paravision. Some of the funds
for establishing the company
were to be provided by L'Oreal.
It has been inferred, but nev-
er proven, that the Damascus-
based Arab League Boycott
Office was incensed by this
arrangement with an Israeli,
Frydman, and placed L'Oreal on
the blacklist.
But a French lawyer who has
perused documents regarding
L'Oreal claimed that money
changed hands to remove the
company from the blacklist and
gave written substantiation of a
list of charges the Frydmans have
made against the company.
Parts of a secret report pre-
pared by the lawyer, David
Ruzie, were leaked last month
to the French and Israeli media.
The Frydman brothers and
Mr. Ruzie charge that L'Oreal
made bribery payments to re-
move the firm from the blacklist
and in 1988 closed an Israeli
plant of the company Helena
Rubenstein, which L'Oreal had
acquired.
The case in France went into
arbitration but remained incon-
clusive.
Israel is pressing for a public
apology from the company, the
London Jewish Chronicle re-
ported.
The London paper also said
that L'Oreal is considering a pos-
sible investment in Israel.
At least one meeting, possibly
more, was held last year be-
tween representatives of the
company and Israeli officials be-
cause L'Oreal indicated it wants
to 'open a new page" in relations
with Israel, the Chronicle re-
ported.
Among allegations that Mr.
Ruzie made is a charge that in
1981, an executive at Chimex, a
subsidiary of L'Oreal, sent writ-
ten proof to the Damascus boy-
cott office that the firm "had no
interests whatsoever in Israel."
According to Mr. Ruzie's re-
port, in 1984 L'Oreal's holding
company completed a question-
naire for the Kuwaiti Arab boy-
cott office showing the firm did
not sell to Israel.
Mr. Ruzie wrote, "Starting in
1985, numerous letters were ex-
changed between L'Oreal and
various representatives of Arab
states" about L'Oreal's purchase
of Helena Rubinstein.
One of the sensational aspects
of this case is that L'Oreal, in its
earliest days following World
War II, employed or had ties to
people who were officials of the
Vichy regime, which persecuted
Jews.
L'Oreal is refraining from
commenting on the case. I I

