Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Former IMF Chief, Reportedly To Be Questioned In Prostitution Ring Probe Next Week

By Pierre Savary

LILLE, France, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be questioned next week by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Lille, northern France, a police source said.

The former finance minister, who left the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last May to face attempted rape charges in New York that were later dropped, had publicly demanded to be interviewed in the separate Lille case.

Strauss-Kahn has been summoned for 0800 GMT on Tuesday, the source said, confirming a report in La Voix du Nord newspaper on Saturday. He is to be taken into custody and questioned for up to 48 hours, according to the regional daily.

Messages left for Strauss-Kahn's Paris attorney were not immediately returned.

Once seen as a likely contender against French President Nicolas Sarkozy in upcoming elections, Strauss-Kahn bowed out of public life after his U.S. arrest on allegations that he attempted to rape a Guinean hotel maid.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, is now pursuing him in a civil action after prosecutors dropped criminal charges.

Separate attempted-rape accusations by a Parisian writer were also shelved by French police on Oct. 13 - three days before Strauss-Kahn's name surfaced again in the Lille investigation.

The probe is focused on a prostitution ring that allegedly supplied women to clients of the city's luxury Carlton hotel. Local businessmen and a police commissioner are among several people arrested so far.

French construction firm Eiffage dismissed an executive suspected of using company funds to hire prostitutes, who allegedly took part in sex parties with Strauss-Kahn in Paris and Washington.

Strauss-Kahn believed he was participating in swingers' parties and had no reason to suspect that the women were prostitutes, his lawyer Henri Leclerc has previously said. Consorting with prostitutes is legal in France. (Reporting by Pierre Savary; Writing by Laurence Frost; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Comments

[Michael Gorecki]

12:18 PM on 02/21/2012

So DSK gets his NYC case thrown out of court, along with the DNA evidence, and then he gets caught in a Prostitution Ring? Is this guy just Stupid or What?

[greyhound2]

09:31 AM on 02/20/2012

Did the New York hotel maid ever pay any penalty for her failed extortion attempt against the banker? Also, wasn't it discovered that she had falsified her immigration papers and was she ever deported as a result?

[PapaKapp]

04:47 PM on 02/19/2012

This is all Bush's fault.

[opiniongirl18]

06:09 PM on 02/19/2012

you should know if you a republicant repugnant right?

[PapaKapp]

06:42 PM on 02/19/2012

I beg your pardon but I'm not a Republican I'm an Obstructionist. It's the newest poitical party. Since the economy seems to be responding so well to gridlock in Washington I've decided to work for the election of candidates who promise to obstruct. And when there's nothing to obstruct I insst they wait. Do nothing, just wait. It seems to be the only thing a politician can do to help. Get it?

[alchemy]

03:06 PM on 02/19/2012

Too bad the press can not focus on how the IMF has raped nations instead of this portly old cad.

[Joyce70]

01:59 PM on 02/19/2012

It seems that many posters are ready to judge instead of Justice.
We must not interfere with the rights of individuals to a fair defence, trial, or prejudice the doctrine of presumed innocence.

[wildbill654]

01:57 PM on 02/19/2012

No doubt that this guy is a skirt chaser, but I do think that he knows the difference between legal in illegal, and so far, this has proven the case. Like others in politics that make enemies, he is learning the hard way.

[lynniemiller]

12:55 PM on 02/19/2012

Not surprised.

[cowboyson1]

09:44 AM on 02/19/2012

Would he buy me some?

[Jakpot]

09:38 AM on 02/19/2012

Why do some big dogs get in trouble. Think they can do as they please!

[mugwhump]

09:22 AM on 02/19/2012

His little head is doing the thinking for the big head. He is old enough to know the trouble the "little man" can cause.

[Jill Press]

01:41 PM on 02/19/2012

Hi, Mug!

I'm sure DSK thinks of his as a big man.

[mugwhump]

03:16 PM on 02/19/2012

Hi, Jill. I'm sure he just had a wardrobe malfunction or slipped and fell on her.

[cptbfhrt]

09:04 AM on 02/19/2012

Wow, the French Bill Clinton.

[hadafaone]

08:39 AM on 02/19/2012

Well at least we know the IMF monies was "redistributed" to hookers....and we get a picture of how DSK would spend the taxpayer's monies in France.... I am sure the POTUS and Congress gave their full support...

[MissTake1989]

08:21 AM on 02/19/2012

Why would a rapist pay for it when he can take it?

[Sunil Weliwitigoda]

07:48 AM on 02/19/2012

DSK, Bill Clinton, Berlusconi, the former Israeli President now in prison, several other world leaders still undiscovered being more discreet than the afore - mentioned - All of them sex offenders. Just imagine what the sex offenders already in prison must bethinking. If only they were in positions of power, they could have had all the fun, with the multiple choices and yet get away with it all. Sounds so unfair by those poor blokes in prison, who when they finally come out, are put on a sex offenders list and the whole neighbourhood keeps a wary lookout for them, with a jaundiced eye. Contrast this with the types of DSK and Clinton who are well known sex offenders and the community applauds them and more women throw themselves at them. It is an unfair world anyway.

[brux]

07:39 AM on 02/19/2012

Gee, where can a poor ole mega-rich geezer go to get laid anymore ? Bummer DSK.