--- title: Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots description: Dark Roots canonical: https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 1991-07-01T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-27T21:55:48.076Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots og:description: Dark Roots og:url: https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots twitter:description: Dark Roots twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 1, 1991 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 1, 1991 4:00 AM CUT The French call it “L’Oreal’s greatest moral scandal.” A corporate feud has focused attention on the pro-Nazi leanings of the beauty giant’s founders. As a result, the U.S. Justice Department is weighing banishment from American soil for Jacques Correze, the honorary head of L’Oreal’s U.S. affiliate, Cosmair. The turmoil began after Jean Frydman, a Jewish film mogul, decided to sell his share in Paravision, a L’Oreal-backed movie firm. Unhappy with L’Oreal’s offer, he sued, making some provocative charges. He says the company forged his resignation from Paravision in order to placate Arab boycotters, a plot engineered by ex-Nazi collaborators like Correze. Fiercely fighting the claims, L’Oreal does concede that its founder, Eugene Schueller, was an anti- Semitic fascist who hired Correze and other ultra-rightists. But that generation no longer runs L’Oreal. Correze, 80 and ailing, is unlikely to visit the U.S. even if he is never placed on the same watch list that bars Austria’s Kurt Waldheim. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/"},"headline":"Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots","datePublished":"1991-07-01T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T21:55:48.076Z","description":"Dark Roots","url":"https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6718032/scandal-loreals-dark-roots/","name":"Scandal L'Oreal's: Dark Roots"}}]}] ```