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Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves the courts in Lille after questioning by three judges over his role in a prostitution case March 26, 2012.
Updated at 4:20 a.m. ET: LILLE, France -- Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was handed preliminary charges Monday alleging he was involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France, a stunning blow for the onetime French presidential hopeful.
The investigation on suspicion of complicity in a pimping operation is the latest judicial headache for the Socialist ex-finance minister. The move could lead to a trial but it falls short of charging him.
His lawyer said the married, 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn engaged in "libertine" acts but did nothing legally wrong.
Strauss-Kahn himself left in a black sedan without speaking publicly. He was released under judicial supervision and was barred from contacting others charged in the case, a judicial official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still underway.
The Lille prosecutor's office said in a statement he was required to post 100,000 euros ($133,300) in bail. He is forbidden to contact witnesses, the press and others involved in the prostitution case, it said.
Under the spotlight
Strauss-Kahn has seen his sexual behavior scrutinized in the international spotlight over the past year. The French preliminary charges come two days before a New York court takes up a civil case in which a hotel maid accuses Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her.
The Lille case centers on allegations that a prostitution ring organized by Strauss-Kahn's business associates supplied clients at the city's Carlton Hotel.
Already in the case, eight people, including two Lille businessmen and a police commissioner, have been arrested, and construction firm Eiffage fired an executive suspected of using company funds to hire sex workers.
Strauss-Kahn investigated in French prostitution ring
Judges had the option of putting him under investigation for having potentially benefited from misappropriated company funds if he knowingly attended prostitute sessions paid for by his executive friends using expense accounts.
Video surveillance footage from the New York City hotel where former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting a maid is raising new questions in the case. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
Instead, the case against Strauss-Kahn hinges on whether he knew he was partying with prostitutes, and whose money was used to pay them. Lawyers for the ex-IMF chief have acknowledged that he attended orgies.
In itself, using prostitutes is not illegal in France.
Prostitutes questioned in the case said they had sex with Strauss-Kahn during 2010 and 2011 at a luxury hotel in Paris, a restaurant in the French capital and also in Washington, D.C., where he lived while working for the Washington-based IMF, judicial officials say.
"Mr. Strauss-Kahn is finding himself, in large part because of his fame, thrown to the butchers," lawyer Richard Malka said. "Colossal police and judicial means were deployed to crack and dissect his private life to an infinite degree, with the only goal being to invent and then castigate what can be considered a crime of lust."
He said it was inappropriate to use "simple libertine activity" to accuse Strauss-Kahn of procuring prostitutes or involvement in organized crime.
Former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back at home in Paris after New York prosecutors dropped the rape case against him. NBC's Annabel Roberts has the report.
French newspapers have dubbed the prostitution investigation "The Carlton Affair" after the name of the expensive Lille hotel where some encounters allegedly took place.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn flees student protesters
Strauss-Kahn's wife of two decades, renowned TV journalist Anne Sinclair, is now editor of the new French version of the Huffington Post website. The site carried a banner headline Monday night reading "PRELIMINARY CHARGES" over a photo of Strauss-Kahn.
The Malka suggested that the charges were politically tinged, since they came down a month before France's presidential election. Just a year ago, Strauss-Kahn, a prominent economist, had topped polls as the man most likely to win.
Strauss-Kahn quit the IMF after the New York hotel maid said he sexually assaulted her in May. The criminal charges were later dropped when prosecutors said the maid's testimony was unreliable. Strauss-Kahn said the encounter was "inappropriate" but insisted it wasn't violent.
The maid, an immigrant from Guinea, has insisted she was truthful about the encounter and is pursuing claims against Strauss-Kahn in a civil lawsuit. A hearing is set for Wednesday on Strauss-Kahn's claim that diplomatic immunity should insulate him from the lawsuit. Strauss-Kahn is not expected to attend.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
This guy at 62 must have stock in Viagra??
Oh no.....another article ?
Let me see now.....Money....Power....Sex....and a little politics (U.N. tentacle.....IMF).
That should cover the article very nicely.
Ooooops, left out the U.S. connection and who was/is closely associated with the IMF.
The man makes Cain look like just a groping angel .............
I would like to know where are all of the bloggers that attacked that maid and called her a liar, whore and/or money chaser? All those people who believed because he was rich and powerful he would not need a lowly chamber maid. People took him and his status and made this woman feel violated because of who he was and who she was not. Just because you have money and power doesn't mean everything is yours for the taking, somethings cannot be brought.
Close ..... Money and Power = Sex, Sex at that age = Viagra
This is what we do in France, good wine, women, cheese and song. Lots of girls, lots of prostitutes, lots of tarts; what a beautiful life. Sadly some people are jealous because they are not getting their fair share or don't know how to.
Well, to be fair, he is famous mostly for being in sex scandals. At least that's why we know of him. Maybe he should just stick with his wife and engage in less "libertine" activities.
What a joke! ...less 'libertine' activities...."I did not have sex with that woman." Sound familiar? At least there won't be taxpayer dollars wasted (I think, you never know) on this idiot tieing up the court system on defending him. VIVA Viagara!
Rick et al - You must be very young. I am 69 and I assure you I don't need Viagra, or any other "aids" in order to have sex. I have friends older than me in the same shape. Getting older does not necessarily mean sex is over!
Whatever you say old man...
He makes former President of the United States and Leader of the Entire Free World a.k.a. "I never had any sexual relations with that woman!" Bill Clinton getting oral sex in the Oval Office from a 21 year old page look like it was a public service!
or Miracle Grow
The man definitely loves his "poon-tang"
DSK is a menace to all women, particularly those between the ages of eight and seventy-eight, and should be chemically castrated not boosted with Viagra or Cialis.
chemically? why not with a knife?
ORB, why? Unless it was rape, which it never was, he does nothing wrong by having sex.
Yes Happy but likw so many other rich business execs, he has trouble seperating his finances from the company finances. Basically they think the companies monies are their own to do as they please with.
@Fishman That's because he is a socialist, socialist take what they want and give you whats left over. The woman in the hotel got pissed of when she got the fu@#ing and not the gratuity she was expecting, so then it became rape.
D Buck, agreed
A real "stand up guy".
Won the erection ... lost the election ... "Pimp my Career" is next.
Straight and to the point
LOL, he just can't stay out of trouble. I don't think I would let him near any wives or daughters.
I have a problem believing this. I think he would have to be an idiot to believe that and I don't think you get as high up as he was before his fall being an idiot.
Tell me why anyone should be surprised by this. It seems that people with power and money always seem to get into stuff like this just because they think they are untouchable.
They are untouchable, he's not in jail!
Money keeps them feeling like a king. I wish they would throw them all in jail!
Power and money are aphrodiasics...Kissinger
In this fruitcakes case....its LUST
Lust for joy!
So what is this story about? A limp pimp? An old wanta be? The jealousy of the morally correct?—correct in who's eyes—if you all locked up in jail all these supposed bad boys and girls only the righteous would be left—how many would that be, a small number indeed with a lot of BS covering for them. This is just a classic case of the Peter Principle..
Haven't read The Peter Principle in 35 years. How true - everyone rises to the level of their own incompetency.
Starleaf - Many of us learned from The Peter Principle and avoided that error!
As I recall, the theory was that we all "tend" to rise to our level of incompetence.
His lawyer has said he had no reason to think women at the parties in question were prostitutes, noting it was not always easy to spot one when they are undressed.
Maybe the simple fact that they WERE undressed might be a clue? Last time I went to a party (yesterday), being undressed was not on the program.
......and undressing for his sake would be the real deal clincher. Does he think he is that hot that women would want him for his body? Yikes! He wants us to believe that a bevy of beautiful young girls happen to feel inclined to party with him and his old cronies and have an orgy.
......and undressing for his sake would be the real deal clincher. Does he think he is that hot that women would want him for his body? Yikes! He wants us to believe that a bevy of beautiful young girls happen to feel inclined to party with him and his old cronies and have an orgy.
This dude is like energizer bunny.
62 and still going.
I wonder if the "business associates" who provided him with the hookers was Berlusconi?! Amazing to me how the Pope has an issue with our Plan B but doesn't say a word about Berlusconi on top of protecting and promoting pedophile priests!!
Women do the same, it's natural but they do it with discretion.
Its always the man that is the predator, even when he is the target. its always the woman that is the victim even when its her idea! if he wasn't such a good target this would not be happening, women are cunning and old men are fools, and rich old fools are idiots, there are lots of dollars to be made here, who is the predator and what is the feast. he would be better of gay at least then he could simply say he was born that way.
Abdel...ahh, true, but aren't rich, powerful men usually more discrete as well? So what does that say about this guy?
DBuck - well said! :)
He is disgrace to his wife, daughter and to all his close associates; Why such people are entring IMF? French people should have more respect for women.
Too bad his American hotel worker cried wolf before. It sounds like she could have had a case after all.
Why the fuss? He was only acting as a performer for a few pornos for the geriatric porn market.
I wonder what hijinks the current Socialist contender, Hollande, for the French Presidency has hidden in HIS closet?
Birds of a feather do flock together...
Another power monger pretending to be a socialist/liberal......put him away...and you can take our Obama/Putin sell-out with him!
Speaking of Obama selling out to Putin, what good is a MDS if you don't defend against the biggest threat? why bother? wait till Obama is on his final run and he is more flexible what will he do then.
Strauss Kahn is the appitamy of a socialist, he wants it all.
So someone says Shariya law works that way and you want to adopt it? You're foolish, as that is a lie. Under this system, the cases are handled by men, and the punishment meted out to a woman tends to be much harsher than to a man, even if the woman is the victim. I vaguely recall hearing of two cases from the Middle East, I think, one from UAE and the other Iran.
A woman was gang-raped, and some men got off scott-free while the others paid a small fine; the victim was tossed in jail. She got out later, and now lives her life as an Untouchable.
A married man fooled around with a single woman, who thought he was unmarried; they were caught by neighbors, who reported them to authorities. He was fined and spent a short time in jail; the woman was facing a death sentence until her story got out and intense international pressure led to a reduced sentence.
Given that pattern, I'd guess DSK and the pimps will pay a fine and may even spend a few weeks in prison, but all the prostitutes will be stoned to death.
How many more stories about this guy can emerge??? Time he goes DOWN !
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was handed preliminary charges Monday alleging he was involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France, a stunning blow for the onetime French presidential hopeful.
This is stunning news? Who writes this stuff? And of course Straus pays prostitutes for sex. Who would have sex with this animal without getting paid?
..should I care?
Doesn't seem so far fetched now that he might have raped that maid
of course its highly likely he really raped that maid. Law enforcement never even took that case seriously, presumably because of the racist assumption that black females cannot be raped.
horny old goat
Take two Viagra's and call this no# if your erection persist here's some more numbers. a pimp could make a fortune on this guy.
Watched a documentary recently, narrated by Matt Damon called Inside Job. DSK was one of those willing to be interviewed concerning the 2008 financial meltdown. His shenanigans are pretty commonplace with Wall Street folk.
Maybe a little payback for running his mouth about the screwing Main Street got?
He likes sex, what is wrong with that?
Having a lot of money and an erection is a combination that sometimes just messes a man up.