The former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was formally placed under arrest today on suspicion charges of aiding and abetting a pimp, and of corruption, during an interrogation in Lille, in Northern France. The summons follows a wide-ranging inquiry into a prostitution ring allegedly based in Lille.
Eight people, including Jean-Christophe Lagarde, the head of police in the Lille region, have already been placed under investigation (the French equivalent of arrest) on suspicion of aggravated pimping, and of being part of a criminal organization, in connection with this ongoing investigation.
Although consorting with prostitutes is not a crime in France, DSK is under investigation for encouraging women to take up prostitution and for facilitating the financing of prostitutes by businesses, both of which are crimes in France.
Magistrates have been informed that prostitutes were paid hundreds of euros to take part in swingers’ parties with DSK, notably at the chic Murano Hotel and L’Aventure Club in Paris, and at the W Hotel in Washington, DC. A number of these prostitutes were flown out to the United States by French businesses to service DSK’s sexual desires. Many of these liaisons were allegedly funded by David Roquet, the head of the northern French division of Eiffage, the Gallic construction group. They were itemized as lobbying expenditures in the corporate accounts. Mr. Roquet has stated that his head office knew that he was paying for prostitutes for DSK with company money because he always wrote DSK on the back of the expenses form.
One 30-year-old prostitute has told the police that she had sexual relations with DSK on 11 occasions and was paid at the rate of between E500 and E1,000 depending on the nature of the sexual services that she provided.
The arrest of DSK on these charges will be used as evidence against DSK by U.S. lawyers representing Nafissatou Diallo, the New York chambermaid who claims he raped and sodomized her on May 14, 2011. Although criminal charges against DSK were dropped by New York prosecutors, Ms. Diallo is currently pursuing a civil claim against him for significant monetary damages.
This latest news is unlikely to help DSK to resuscitate any kind of career, save perhaps in the criminal underworld. Whether or not he will end up behind bars is now in the hands of the French system of justice, which is notably less politically corrupted than that of the District of Manhattan.
Tags: arrested for corruption, arrested for pimping, dominique strauss-kahn, DSK use of prostitutes, L'Aventure Club, Lille prostitution ring, Murano Hotel, political corruption, W Hotel
