Strauss-Kahn: Claims he did not know women were prostitutes
French police were questioning former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on 21 February for his suspected participation in a hotel prostitution ring, one that allegedly supplied clients of Lille, France’s, Carlton hotel and one that has implicated police along with other officials in France and Belgium.
Strauss-Kahn can be held for the next two days and may then be placed under a formal investigation for benefitting from misappropriated company funds.
A central question in the investigation is whether or not Strauss-Kahn knew women at sex parties he attended were prostitutes. He didn’t know they were, he has said. Investigators are seeking to learn whether or not these prostitutes were paid using corporate funds from a French construction company.
So far, police have also taken in prostitutes who have claimed Strauss-Kahn have use their services during the past two years in both Paris and Washington, D.C, where Strauss-Kahn lived when he was head of the IMF before he resigned from the position in May.
This impending investigation is another sexual-misconduct allegation against Strauss-Kahn, who at one time had his eye on the French presidency and who was charged in May in New York for making a hotel maid perform oral sex.
New York prosecutors eventually dropped the charges after the accuser limited her credibility by lying about her background and providing different accounts of the actions of the assault.
In a separate case five months later, French prosecutors dropped an investigation revolving around allegations that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape writer Tristane Banon in 2003. Prosecutors dismissed the case, claiming Strauss-Kahn couldn’t stand trial because the suspected rape happened too long ago.
About the Author
Trainee Reporter
Rachel Kiser is studying journalism, political science and psychology in the US, and is reporting for New Europe during the spring 2012 semester.
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