Dominique Strass-Kahn Resigns From IMF; See His Mug Shot

By Adam S. Levy
Radar Staff Writer

French politician Dominique Strass-Kahn has resigned from his position as the head of the International Monetary Fund, the organization that oversees global financial policy.  The news came as authorities released his mug shot amid a sex scandal.

The 62-year-old Strass-Kahn, who’s accused of sexually assaulting a maid at the Sofitel hotel last week, is currently in custody at New York’s Rikers Island.

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“It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the executive board my resignation from my post of managing director of the IMF,” Strass-Kahn said  in a statement released by the IMF shortly after midnight Thursday in Washington.  “I think at this time first of my wife – whom I love more than anything – of my children, of my family, of my friends. I think also of my colleagues at the Fund. Together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more.

“To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me. I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially – especially – I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence.”

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As previously reported, here’s how the alleged incident went down, according to authorities:

The maid claimed she went into Strauss-Kahn’s $3,000-a-night room Saturday afternoon, thinking it was vacant so she could clean, according to New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne.

She told police that Strauss-Kahn burst out of the bathroom naked, chased her and pulled her into a room, where he forced her to perform a sex act on him and tried to take off her underwear.

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The maid, who hails from the West African nation of Guinea, said she broke free and told her hotel co-workers. Strauss-Kahn quickly left the hotel, but left his cell phone on the premises, police said.

Strauss-Kahn, a married father-of-four, was arrested Saturday as he tried to return to his homeland on an Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport. While in custody at a Harlem precinct, police said his accuser identified him out of a lineup.

Strass-Kahn is referred to as DSK in French press, and has been given the nickname “The Great Seducer” for his well-documented way with the ladies. Until the recent incident, French media had tabbed the Socialist as a strong opponent to current President Nicolas Sarkozy in the country’s presidential election next year.

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Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys will ask a Manhattan court if he can post $1 million bail in a hearing Thursday. They will ask the court to let him stay at the New York home of his daughter Camille, who’s attending Columbia University. Under those terms, he would be on house arrest and wear an electronic monitoring device.

Strauss-Kahn is “a loving husband and father, and a highly regarded diplomat, politician, lawyer … economist and professor, with no criminal record,” according to his attorneys.

Stay with RadarOnline.com for more on this story as it breaks.

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