Dominique Strauss-Kahn agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the maid who accused him of trying to rape her, resolving a legal saga that ended his term as head of the International Monetary Fund and derailed a potential French presidential bid.
Lawyers for Mr Strauss-Kahn and hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo told New York state supreme court justice Douglas McKeon in the Bronx yesterday that they had reached an agreement to end the lawsuit. The former IMF chief had been accused of “violent and deplorable acts” during an encounter at the Sofitel in Manhattan.
The lawsuit was filed in August 2011, about three months after Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with attempting to rape Ms Diallo and two weeks before the criminal charges were dropped.
Terms of the settlement are confidential, said the judge. French daily Le Monde, citing unidentified people close to the former IMF chief, reported on November 30th that he might pay $6 million to settle the suit, borrowing $3 million from his wife, Anne Sinclair, and the rest from a bank.
Mr Strauss-Kahn and Ms Sinclair, editor of the French version of the Huffington Post, separated this year. His lawyers denied the “fantastical and erroneous information in Le Monde, and called the report “flatly false”. – (Bloomberg)