Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

Housekeeper details alleged attack

The alleged sexual assault occurred around 1 p.m., police told the Associated Press.

The housekeeper told authorities she entered Strauss-Kahn’s suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel not far from Manhattan’s Times Square at about 1 p.m., and that he attacked her. She told police she was planning to clean the spacious $3,000-a-night suite, which she thought was empty, according to the AP.

Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her, the woman told police, according to the AP. She said she fought him off, but he then dragged her into the bathroom, according to the account.

The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, and they called police, authorities said. Strauss-Kahn bolted the hotel room, leaving behind his cell phone, police told the AP.

The NYPD learned Strauss-Kahn was on a plane bound for France and asked officers with the Port Authority of New York to board the plane and remove him.

At 4:40 p.m., about 10 minutes before Air France Flight 23 was to take off Saturday, officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey removed Strauss-Kahn, authorities said. They did not handcuff him. They then turned him over to the police...

Earlier controversies

Strauss-Kahn, who took over the IMF in 2007 after being nominated by Sarkozy, was involved the following year in a scandal involving an extramarital affair with a woman who headed the fund’s Africa department, and who left the IMF under a voluntary retirement plan. The bank’s board, after considering whether Strauss-Kahn was guilty of abuse of authority, reprimanded him for what it called a serious error of judgment but kept him in his job.

His wife, the former television interviewer Anne Sinclair, publicly forgave him for what she described in her blog as a one-night stand.

Sunday, Sinclair expressed disbelief that her husband could have done what he is accused of and called on all to exercise “decency and restraint.”

“I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband,” she said in a statement relayed by Agence France-Presse. “I have no doubt his innocence will be established.”

The sexual assault charges came just as another media furor was dying down, this one over photos of Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair getting out of a $150,000 Porsche Panamera on a Paris street.

Although it later became known that the car belonged to a friend, the photo raised questions about the couple’s lifestyle — with two toney apartments in Paris, a vacation home in Marrakesh and a $4 million residence in Washington — and whether it was compatible with someone claiming to represent the Socialist Party.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/imf-chief-arrested-in-alleged-sex-assault/2011/05/15/AF1SDD4G_print.html

No matter what such men should not be in the power of some local police force with immunity until and if it can be shown that there are serous grounds for such charges and then the immunity can be wave.

Immunity defense would be hard for Strauss-Kahn
Sun May 15, 2011
By Brian Grow

ATLANTA (Reuters) - If IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn decides to seek diplomatic immunity to avoid sexual assault charges, he will likely have an uphill climb, a Reuters review of U.S. and international laws and treaties, International Monetary Fund policies and recent U.S. court rulings suggests.

Under the IMF's Articles of Agreement, employees are granted a limited form of diplomatic immunity known as "acts immunity," which refer to actions related to activities performed in the course of their work for the Fund. Article IX of the agreement notes that the Fund's staff "shall be immune from legal process with regard to acts performed by them in their official capacity." Even then, the agreement says, the IMF may elect to waive immunity.

The IMF's limited immunity provision is unlikely to protect Strauss-Kahn from prosecution for sexual assault, an expert in international law argued. "Acts immunity only covers actions taken in the course of his duties. Coming out of your bathroom stark naked and attacking a chambermaid probably doesn't qualify," Kurt Taylor Gaubatz, an associate professor in the Graduate Program in International Studies at Old Dominion University, wrote in a blog post on Sunday. Gaubatz did not respond to requests for additional comment.

Federal law in the United States may also make it difficult for Strauss-Kahn to claim diplomatic immunity. The International Organizations Immunities Act applies a limited scope of exemption from prosecution similar to the IMF's own rules. It says "representatives of foreign governments in or to international organizations" and "employees of such organizations" are immune from lawsuits and the legal process "relating to acts performed by them in their official capacity."

On Sunday, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity, though Browne did not elaborate on why the NYPD believes diplomatic immunity does not apply. A spokeswoman for the French Consulate in New York, Marie-Laure Charrier, referred questions about possible diplomatic immunity to the IMF. A statement posted on the IMF Web site on Sunday did not address the issue.

Despite the limited immunity provided by IMF rules, Strauss-Kahn could still try to leverage his status as a quasi-diplomat in his legal defense. One of his attorneys is William Taylor, a partner with law firm Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington. Taylor has represented a range of high-profile clients, including former White House chief of staff Mack McLarty, in civil and criminal actions. The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2008 that Taylor also represented Strauss-Kahn in the controversy over an affair the married IMF chief allegedly had with a female subordinate at the Fund. Taylor did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/15/us-strausskahn-immunity-idUSTRE74E38220110515

As I already stated for a bribe of a few thousands dollars to some hotel worker now it is known you can interfere with the working of the world economic system at least for a time.

The New York Times
May 15, 2011
I.M.F. Names Replacement as Chief Awaits Arraignment
By AL BAKER and STEVEN ERLANGER

Hours after its chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in connection with the alleged sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the International Monetary Fund on Sunday named John Lipsky as acting managing director.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/nyregion/imf-names-replacement-as-chief-awaits-arraignment.html?hp

He is presumed innocent until proved otherwise--you do remember that, don't you?

And there has been no interference with the working of the I.M.F. A replacement Chief has already been named.

Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her, the woman told police, according to the AP. She said she fought him off, but he then dragged her into the bathroom, according to the account.

The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, and they called police, authorities said. Strauss-Kahn bolted the hotel room, leaving behind his cell phone, police told the AP

The IMF apparently disagrees with you. They had a succession plan and it has been initiated.

You of all people should have the nerve to post that statement.

what the **** language are you posting in?

You--who just publicly accused a presumably innocent hotel maid of filing a false sexual assault complaint, and of participating in a conspiracy, without any evidence, at all, to back up your defamation of her character--should never again have the gall to complain about "false allegations" against men made by women.

If he did all of what is cliamed then he should be cashiered for stupidity, but what is being described is an attempt at a sex romp, it is not a predotory violent act against women. This guy was certainly laughing as he ran down the hall, if this is what he did.

Any arguments you make lose all credibility when you say something as outrageous and offensive as this.

a national political leader is going to have so little sense that he chased a maid down a hall while naked, and struggled with her?? Doubtful, but there certainly should be video or witnesses. If he did all of what is cliamed then he should be cashiered for stupidity, but what is being described is an attempt at a sex romp, it is not a predotory violent act against women. This guy was certainly laughing as he ran down the hall, if this is what he did.

there certainly should be video or witnesses

When you stay in a hotel room, are you under video surveillance--inside your room?