Free Republic

The summer, thankfully, has been largely bereft of the dismal trend of bankers committing suicide, but as Bloomberg reports, Thierry Leyne, a French-Israeli banker and partner of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former chief of the IMF, was found dead Thursday after apparently taking his own life by jumping off the 23rd floor of one of the Yoo towers, a prestigious residential complex in Tel Aviv. This is the 16th financial services executive death this year.  Bloomberg reports that Thierry Leyne, the French-Israeli entrepreneur who last year started an investment firm with former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has died....

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexually assaulting her last year have quietly reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit she brought against him stemming from the case, which made international headlines.  French media reported Friday that Strauss-Kahn, 63, former head of the International Monetary Fund, would pay $6 million to Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of attacking her at a Manhattan hotel.   The parties are scheduled to appear next week before Justice Douglas E. McKeon in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in May 2011 after Ms. Diallo, an immigrant from...

Nicolas Sarkozy "laughed uncontrollably" when told Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been caught partaking in an orgy with prostitutes but swore his aides to silence and went on to name him IMF head, a new book claims. Les Strauss-Kahn, written by Raphaëlle Bacqué and Ariane Chemin, journalists at Le Monde, provides fresh details about Mr Sarkozy’s knowledge of Mr Strauss-Kahn’s sexual practices, his proximity to the Socialist and decision to protect his reputation. Mr Sarkozy was interior minister late in 2006 – a few months before his election to the presidency – when Alain Gardère, the public security chief of Paris, told...

Bronx judge doesn’t buy his claim of diplomatic immunity A New York hotel maid's sexual assault lawsuit against French bigwig Dominique Strauss-Kahn can go forward, a Bronx judge ruled Tuesday.   State Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon decided that the former International Monetary Fund leader is not entitled to diplomatic immunity.   He derided Strauss-Kahn's claim of international protection as the legal equivalent of a "Hail Mary" football pass.    McKeon noted that the disgraced politician didn't cite diplomatic immunity last year when faced with criminal charges for the May 2011 encounter and pointed out that Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF long before he...

On Saturday, Hollande’s campaign director Pierre Moscovici and communication director Manuel Valls were both invited to celebrate the birthday of Socialist lawmaker Julien Dray at a popular disco bar on Paris’ notorious Rue St Denis. What Dray had failed to mention was that DSK, as he is known in France, was also a guest at the party. Hollande’s former partner and defeated presidential candidate in 2007, Segolene Royal, was reported to be furious when she learned of DSK’s presence and stormed-off without meeting him. “It’s lucky that I didn’t find myself face-to-face with him,” she said. “I left because it...

Disgraced ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once tipped to win France's presidential vote, has made a dramatic incursion into the campaign with a claim Nicolas Sarkozy orchestrated his downfall. The accusation came as the battle between Mr Sarkozy and Francois Hollande grew ever more bitter, with the incumbent accusing the front-running Socialist of subjecting him to a “Stalinist trial” over his bid to woo the far right. Mr Strauss-Kahn, in his first major newspaper interview since his disgrace a year ago, told Britain's The Guardian newspaper that his spectacular fall was orchestrated by opponents to prevent him standing as Socialist candidate....

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was released on bail on Monday after he was charged with involvement in a prostitution ring in Lille. The filing of the preliminary charges allows for further investigation. His lawyer, Richard Malka, has argued that Mr. Strauss-Kahn did not know that the women in question were prostitutes hired by his hosts, including for evenings in Washington and Paris, and that he did not pay them. His lawyers will also be in court on Wednesday in New York for the first hearing in a civil case brought against him by...

Anne Sinclair, former anchor of France’s most popular TV show and the wife of shamed former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been chosen to run the French version of American news website Huffington Post. The French-language edition of news and opinion website The Huffington Post will be run by Anne Sinclair, who is married to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former International Monetary Fund director and Socialist politician. Strauss-Kahn stood down from his post last year following sex crime allegations. He was also shamed out of running for the Socialist slot in the 2012 French presidential primary election. New York-born Sinclair, an esteemed...

The long-suffering wife of shamed former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been voted Woman of the Year in a new poll in France. Millionairess Anne Sinclair, 63, won the annual award for her ‘loyalty and courage’ in the face of her husband’s catalogue of humiliating sex scandals. The former TV presenter stood by Strauss-Kahn after he was arrested for allegedly trying to rape a New York chambermaid. Anne Sinclair, who has been crowned France's Woman of the Years, supported her husband, Dominique Strauss-Kahn through his sexual assault charges But Ms Sinclair was praised for her ‘tenacity and unwavering support’ for...

Hotel staff 'celebrated' after Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest Claims that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was the victim of a conspiracy were reignited last night, after extraordinary new allegations were made about his sexual encounter with a New York chambermaid. By Henry Samuel, Paris 12:25AM GMT 26 Nov 2011 Staff at the hotel where the ex-International Monetary Fund chief allegedly assaulted the maid were filmed high-fiving and doing a “dance of celebration” after the incident in May, a new article claims. Mr Strauss-Kahn also believed his mobile phone had been hacked after being told one of his private emails was seen in the headquarters...

A police chief who hoped to guard Dominique Strauss-Kahn if he became President of France organised an orgy with him in a Paris hotel, it was claimed today. The senior officer is also said to have accompanied prostitutes to New York to meet up with Mr Strauss-Kahn when he was in charge of the International Monetary Fund. The well-sourced allegations about Jean-Christophe Lagarde are not only deeply embarrassing for Mr Strauss-Kahn, but point to wide-scale corruption at the heart of French political life. Sleaze allegations: Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves a Paris polling station today after voting in the Socialist Party's election...

 For the second time this year, legal officials chose on Thursday not to prosecute Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of attempted rape, despite what investigators here said was evidence of sexual assault, ending months of scandal that have tarnished a political career that once seemed destined to lead to the French presidency. There was evidence from Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s own testimony of sexual assault in a 2003 encounter with a French writer and novelist, Tristane Banon, the prosecutor said in a statement, but given a three-year statute of limitations on that charge, no case would be brought. “Facts that could be qualified...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was brought face to face on Thursday with the French writer who has accused him of trying to rape her eight years ago.    In two hours of police questioning, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, continued to deny any wrongdoing, one of his lawyers said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, Tristane Banon, were questioned together at a French police station as investigators sought to compare their versions of events and extract further information on the case. They met for the first time since Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arrested in the United States in May...

<p>PARIS (Dow Jones)--The former International Monetary Fund's Managing Director, Dominique Strauss Kahn, Sunday said Greece is unable to pay its debt and its creditors will have to take losses on the debt they hold.</p> <p>"Greece got poorer, we can say Greeks will pay on their own, but they can't," Strauss Kahn said in an interview on French TV channel TF1. "There is a loss and it must be taken by governments and banks," he said.</p>

Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted a “moral fault” and expressed regret to his family and the French people but continued to strongly protest his innocence against accusations that he sexually assaulted a chambermaid in a New York hotel in May, in his first interview since the case was dropped last month. The former head of the International Monetary Fund definitively ruled out running as a candidate in the French presidential election next year as a result of the scandal. “I wanted to be a candidate, but that is behind me. I am not a candidate for anything. I will take time to...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who returned to Paris after New York prosecutors dropped charges of attempted rape against him, will be interviewed on Sunday on France’s most-watched news program, a spokesman at the TF1 television channel said. It will be Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s first interview since his arrest in New York in May. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who had been considered a strong rival to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the 2012 presidential election, is expected to be asked about his political future, the future of his party and the current crisis of the euro, among...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who returned to Paris last week after New York prosecutors dropped rape charges against him, was questioned for three hours on Monday about a sexual assault complaint dating to 2003, his lawyers said. In that case, a writer, Tristane Banon, now 32, has accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her as she was interviewing him for a book. She lodged the complaint in July, saying that she had been advised not to press charges on the advice of her mother, a prominent member of the Socialist party, as is...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and onetime hopeful for the French presidency, returned to his native land early Sunday morning, in a low-key coda to the international furor that erupted when he was arrested in mid-May and charged with sexually assaulting a New York hotel housekeeper. Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, landed at Charles de Gaulle airport shortly after 7 a.m. and emerged about 40 minutes later, breezing past a crowd of reporters without speaking before getting into a car and leaving. But Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who was once seen as a contender in...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief, has been described as "mentally ill" by Michel Rocard, France's highly respected former prime minister. The 81-year-old elder statesman of the Socialist party delivered his damning verdict in a live TV interview on Monday night. Mr Rocard - French prime minister from 1988 to 1991 - said it was “clearly medical problems” that drove Mr Strauss-Kahn to become embroiled in repeated sex scandals. The 63-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund was recently freed from charges of trying to rape a hotel chambermaid in New York. Guinea-born maid Nafissatou Diallo, 32, has launched...

Judge rejects special prosecutor for Strauss-Kahn By Joseph Ax | Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge dropped all criminal sexual assault charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday, leaving him free to return to France and rebuild a shattered career. The decision ended a case that brought three months of sordid headlines on both sides of the Atlantic about a hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her in his luxury Manhattan hotel suite and forced her to perform oral sex. Prosecutors took the rare step of requesting dismissal of the charges after...