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Christine Lagarde convicted: IMF head found guilty of criminal charges over massive government payout
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has been convicted over her role in a controversial €400m (£355m) payment to a businessman.
French judges found Ms Lagarde guilty of negligence for failing to challenge the state arbitration payout to the friend of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The 60-year-old, following a week-long trial in Paris, was not given any sentence and will not be punished.
The Court of Justice of the Republic, a special tribunal for ministers, could have given her up to one-year in prison and a €13,000 fine.
The ruling however risks triggering a new leadership crisis at the IMF after Ms Lagarde’s predecessor Dominique Strauss Khan resigned in 2011 over a sex assault scandal.
Ms Lagarde, who was French finance minister at the time of the payment in 2008, has denied the negligence charges.
Her lawyer said immediately after the ruling that his team would look into appealing the decision.
On Friday she told the court: “These five days [of trial] put an end to a five-year ordeal for my partner, my sons, my brothers, who are hear in this courtroom.
“In this case, like in all the other cases, I acted with trust and with a clear conscience with the only intention of defending the public interest.”
The case surrounded the decision to allow a dispute over Bernard Tapie’s sale of Adidas to Credit Lyonnais bank to be resolved by a rarely-used private arbitration panel – instead of the courts.
Investigators suspected the payment to 73-year-old Mr Tapie was the result of a behind closed doors agreement with then-President Mr Sakozy in return for election support.
Ms Lagarde was suspected of rubber stamping a deal to effectively buy off the business magnate with taxpayers’ money.
Today’s result was unexpected.
Even the trial’s chief prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said the accusation was “very weak” and warned of confusion between “criminal negligence” and a “bad political decision”.
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Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=16706
