Strauss-Kahn leaving the polling station after voting yesterday Former International Monetary Fund IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to shake off yet another sex scandal yesterday, demanding to be interviewed by judges to clear his name over reports linking him to a vice ring.
Strauss-Kahn firmly denied those claims, and prosecutors have dropped both cases, but yesterday his name was linked to another scandal, an investigation into an alleged call girl network in the northern city of Lille. Investigators in Lille believe that they have uncovered a well-connected ring that brought women over the frontier from Belgium to have sex with wealthy clients in hotels in the border city, including the four-star Carlton.
Five men β including the director and the public relations chief of the Carlton β have been arrested in France and charged with pimping, while Belgian police are also investigating on their side of the frontier. Three Lille hotels have been shut down by authorities for three months each while the case is investigated.
The weekly Journal du Dimanche cited sources close to the investigation saying that Strauss-Kahn, now living in Paris, could be questioned. According to the report, investigators suspect the ring may have dispatched call girls to the US to entertain him and that he might have taken part in sex parties organised in Paris by one of the Lille suspects.
Under French law, sexual assault is a lesser crime than attempted rape and cannot be prosecuted more than three years after the event. But the former finance minister still faces a civil case in New York lodged by year-old Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel chamber maid who alleges he sexually assaulted and tried to rape her on May 14 this year. Strauss-Kahn has admitted having a sexual encounter with the maid, but denies violence.
