Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit brought by a New York maid who accused him of sexual assault, according to reports in France and the United States.
The French newspaper Le Monde said Mr Strauss-Kahn had told friends he had agreed to pay hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo $6 million to end the 18-month legal saga, but the politician’s lawyers described that figure as “fanciful”.
Reports in France said Mr Strauss-Kahn and Ms Diallo would meet a judge in New York on December 7th to sign the deal and close an affair that ended the Frenchman’s IMF career and wrecked his presidential ambitions.
The Le Monde article followed a report in the New York Times that the two sides had “quietly reached an agreement to settle”. Le Monde reported that Mr Strauss-Kahn planned to take out a bank loan for $3 million and would be lent the other $3 million by his wife, Anne Sinclair, despite the couple having separated.
Lawyers for Mr Strauss-Kahn and Ms Diallo based in Paris would not confirm a deal had been agreed.
The reports come as Mr Strauss-Kahn awaits a French court’s decision on whether he is to face further investigation into pimping charges arising from allegations that he and associates arranged sex parties with prostitutes in the northern city of Lille. His lawyers have filed a request for the charges to be dismissed.
Public life
If that case is dropped and Ms Diallo ends her civil proceedings, Mr Strauss-Kahn would have a freer rein to pursue his consultancy work and could even consider a tentative return to public life in France, where he has been widely shunned since the scandal.
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