Dominique Strauss-Kahn

[caption id="attachment_13269" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Reuters."][/caption]After spending four days in solitary confinement in the Rilkers Island prison, on 19 May 2011 former IMF (International Monetary Fund) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was granted USD 1 million bail and placed under house arrest on the condition that he be tagged with an electronic device.  He was formally indicted on all seven counts of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in the Sofitel suite in New York.Indictment: Strauss-Kahn was charged for two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, one count of sexual abuse in the first degree, one count of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, one count of forcible touching, and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree.The allegation: On May 14,  a Sofitel housekeeper, told police that when she entered his suite to clean it, Strauss-Kahn “emerged naked from the bathroom, pursued her down the hallway and pulled her into the bedroom” and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She tried to escape, but he chased her and dragged her into a bathroom. The woman managed to break free, after which Strauss-Kahn fled the hotel in a rush, leaving behind his cell phone and other belongings. After the tip-off, police arrested Strauss-Kahn from the first-class section of the Air France aircraft at the John F Kennedy international airport. He pleaded consensual sex, but was indicted on seven counts.He resigned from the post of IMF chief on 19 May. Read the IMF press release.Professional high: Spectacular rise to an ill-timed fall• Reuters reports that “in  the 1970s, Strauss-Kahn mixed left-wing politics and economics research, picking up law and advanced economics degrees along the way.• A research work on savings and inequality got him noticed by the Socialist Party and he soon became the “economic brains of the party”. In 1991, he got his first government posting as the industry minister.• Between 1993 and 1997, he was a corporate lawyer.• In 1997, he made it to the front rows of French polity with his appointment as finance minister. “He helped convince the Germans to accept Italy in a "big euro". He also was instrumental in creating the political framework for the euro, including the formation of a separate euro group to oversee policy coordination in the monetary area.” He resigned in 1999.• He was the Professor of Economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris in 2000 and 2001 and and was a visiting professor at Stanford University.• In 2006, he ran for the Socialist Party's nomination for the French presidential election. He failed.• From 2001 to 2007, he was reelected three times to the National Assembly.• He was also a personal advisor to the Secretary General of the OECD.• He served as  IMF chief from November1 2007 to May 19, 2011.• Strauss-Kahn was expected to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s presidential elections in 2012.Moral low: The sharp economist’s unrestrained outings• Within a few months of taking over as IMF chief, a married Strauss-Kahn had an affair with a senior fund economist, Piroska Nagy, till her husband pulled the sheets off the affair. Strauss-Kahn was let off with a statement, "serious error of judgment." Reuters reports that Nagy alleged Strauss-Kahn abused his position of power during their relationship. “He summoned me on several occasions and came to make inappropriate suggestions to me… it is, in my view, incontestable that Mr. Strauss-Kahn made use of his position to obtain access to me,” she said.• Carmen Llera, a Spanish author, published poetry about a former lover with a sadistic streak in bed, which Italian newspapers say is none other than Strauss-Kahn.• On 16 May 2011,  French writer Tristane Banon claimed Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago. She  is yet to file an official complaint. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife.• In 2006, the book entitled Sexus Politicus — about the headiness of power — devoted a chapter to Strauss-Kahn’s exploits called “the DSK affair”.• Time magazine writes that “In Paris, at the bar of the Lutetia Hotel, a favourite haunt of many a Socialist Party head, one could spot him being too pushy with young women.”• The Daily Telegraph reports that Strauss-Kahn hired prostitutes from the "Manhattan Madam, Kristin Davis in 2006, “and that one complained about his ‘aggressive’ behaviour”.• A journalist, Martina (last name unknown), told the Business Insider, "It was after a group interview. He got my phone number from his embassy or the Institut Francais and started calling me, saying ‘If you go out with me, you can have your own interview’.”