Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's claims of immunity from a civil lawsuit are "utterly meritless," lawyers for the hotel maid seeking damages for an alleged sexual assault said on Monday.

"/> Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's claims of immunity from a civil lawsuit are "utterly meritless," lawyers for the hotel maid seeking damages for an alleged sexual assault said on Monday.

" />

Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN

Lawyers blast ‘frivolous’ DSK immunity bid

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's claims of immunity from a civil lawsuit are "utterly meritless," lawyers for the hotel maid seeking damages for an alleged sexual assault said on Monday.

Published: 25 October 2011 14:22 CEST

Lawyers blast 'frivolous' DSK immunity bid

WTO

Strauss-Kahn last month filed a petition seeking dismissal of the suit filed by Nafissatou Diallo, the Guinean chambermaid who alleged that the one-time French presidential hopeful tried to rape her in May.

Diallo’s attorneys said in a court filing on Monday that the former IMF boss’s petition “should be denied in its entirety as utterly meritless and frivolous,” and that the case should be allowed to proceed.

Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were dropped in August when prosecutors lost faith in Diallo’s credibility, but she is pursuing a civil case for undisclosed monetary damages.

Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, did not claim immunity during the criminal case as the alleged assault happened while he was staying in New York in a personal capacity.

He asserts however that his position as the IMF’s chief executive provides him protection against civil action.

Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign as managing director of the International Monetary Fund when he was arrested and charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of Diallo in his suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan.

The French economist walked free two months ago when a criminal court judge dismissed the charges against him after prosecutors said they could not pursue the case because of Diallo’s repeated lying during the investigation.

DNA evidence indicated that a sexual encounter did occur between the two, but Strauss-Kahn’s defense team insist it was consensual.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

World unprepared for next financial crisis: ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn

Former French Economy Minister and former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn , poses during a photo session in Paris on Thursday. Photo: JOEL SAGET / AFP

In an interview with AFP, the now-disgraced Strauss-Kahn — who ran the fund at the height of the 2008 financial meltdown — also said rising populism across the world is a direct result of the crisis.

Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the IMF in 2011 after being accused of attempted rape in New York, although the charges were later dropped. He settled a subsequent civil suit, reportedly with more than $1.5 million.

Q: When did you become aware that a big crisis was brewing?

A: When I joined the IMF on Nov 1, 2007, it became clear quite quickly that things were not going well. That is why in January 2008, in Davos, I made a statement that made a bit of noise, asking for a global stimulus package worth two percent of each country's GDP. In April 2008, during the IMF's spring meetings, we released the figure of $1,000 billion that banks needed for their recapitalisation.

Q: Did the Bush administration grasp the danger of Lehman Brothers going bankrupt?

A: No, and that is why Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson decided not to save Lehman, because he wanted to make an example of it in the name of moral hazard. Like everybody else, he considerably underestimated the consequences. Allowing Lehman to go under was a serious mistake. Especially because only a week later they were forced to save the insurer AIG, which was much bigger.

Q: Ten years on, are we better equipped to deal with a crisis of such a magnitude?

A: No. We have made some progress, particularly in the area of banks' capital adequacy ratios. But that is not nearly enough. Imagine Deutsche Bank suddenly finding itself in difficulty. The eight percent of capital it has at its disposal are not going to be enough to solve the problem. The truth is that we are less well prepared now. Regulations are insufficient.

Q: How so?

A: After 2012-2013 we stopped talking about the need to regulate the economy, for example concerning the size of banks, or concerning rating agencies. We backtracked, which is why I am pessimistic about our preparedness. We have a non-thinking attitude towards globalisation and that does not yield positive results.

Q: Do we still have international coordination?

A: Coordination is mostly gone. Nobody plays that role anymore. Not the IMF and not the EU, and the United States president's policies are not helping. As a result, the mechanism that was created at the G20, which was very helpful because it involved emerging countries, has fallen apart. Ten years ago, governments accepted leaving that role to the IMF. I'm not sure it is able to play it today, but the future will tell.

Q: Do you believe that Donald Trump's election is a consequence of the crisis?

A: I believe so. I'm not saying that there was a single reason for Trump's election, but today's political situation is not unconnected to the crisis we lived through, both in the US with Trump and in Europe.

Q: Connected how?

A: One of the consequences of the crisis has been completely underestimated, in my opinion: the populism that is appearing everywhere is the direct outcome of the crisis and of the way that it was handled after 2011/2012, by favouring solutions that were going to increase inequalities.

Quantitative easing (by which central banks inject liquidity into the banking system) was useful and welcome. But it is a policy that is basically designed to bail out the financial system, and therefore serves the richest people on the planet.

When there's a fire, firemen intervene and there is water everywhere. But then you need to mop up, which we didn't do. And because this water flowed into the pockets of some, and not of everyone, there was a surge in inequality.

By AFP's Antonio Rodriguez

Url copied to clipboard!