French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin, who has stirred controversy over his right-wing politics, is pleading with lawmakers to modify rules so he can disinherit his five children, saying he prefers to give his fortune to charity.“I would like to give my entire estate to philanthropic causes,” the French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin told senators on Thursday during a public hearing when asking them to modify the law. (AFP)“I would like to give my entire estate to philanthropic causes,” the businessman told senators on Thursday during a public hearing, noting that under French law three quarters of his assets have to be passed down to his offspring. “I’m in favor of being able to do whatever one wants to do with one’s patrimony.”Sterin made his appeal before a committee that’s investigating private sector financing and influence on public policy. His appearance via video link came a year after he had angered deputies in the country’s lower house, the National Assembly, for failing to show up for another hearing, citing death threats and security risks.The 52-year-old tax exile, who lives in Belgium, has stoked intense debate in France in recent years over his backing of philanthropic and political outfits, some of which are linked to causes put forward by the far-right. Sterin said Thursday that he hopes his actions will help put France on a more right-wing, economically liberal and conservative path.Sterin told senators he’s at the center of the conservative end of France’s political spectrum, but on immigration he was more extreme than the far-right National Rally, whose leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are leading in the polls ahead of next year’s presidential election. Sterin, however, has ties to the RN party via François Durvye, the former Chief Executive Officer of his family office Otium Capital.“I am in favor of the re-migration of foreigners who are delinquent, undocumented or without work for more than 12 months,” Sterin said. He declined to speak on his stance against abortion.Sterin has a net worth of about €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a calculation based on the net asset value of his portfolio of investments held through Otium.