Rape, Imf Sex Scandal | featured news

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, is reportedly settling a lawsuit brought against him by a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

French prosecutors say they are dropping an investigation into former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn over a "gang rape" alleged to have taken place in Washington. The woman who made the complaint has retracted her evidence, they added. Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, is still under investigation with three other men over their alleged roles in a prostitution ring. He denies the allegations.

A French prosecutor on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington hotel by former IMF chief and one-time French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Investigators are examining allegations that Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape at a Washington hotel in 2010, a spokesperson at the prosecutor’s office in Lille said on Friday.

After investigating a complaint filed against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in which a journalist accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003, French prosecutors said there was a lack of sufficient evidence to file charges.

The criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, officially ended Tuesday after a Manhattan judge dismissed all charges at the prosecution’s request.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. of Manhattan will ask a judge to dismiss the sexual-assault case, a person briefed on the matter said.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted a housekeeper in a "violent and sadistic attack" in his hotel suite in Manhattan in May, a civil lawsuit filed on Monday alleges.

If the New York sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn ever goes to trial, much will doubtless be made of his accuser’s background. But what about his? Since his New York arrest, a French writer has brought a criminal complaint in Paris about an attempted rape she says she suffered at Strauss-Kahn’s hands in 2003. The New York prosecutors made an apparent allusion to her claim at Strauss-Kahn’s first court appearance in May.

Faced with a legal and media onslaught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is pulling together a crack team of investigators, former spies and media advisers to fight back against charges he sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid.