IMF’s Christine Lagarde under probe

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="nrelate_flyout_placeholder"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, says she has been placed under formal investigation for negligence in French fraud case but has not been charged.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She has been questioned several times about her role in a 400m euro (£318m; $527m) compensation payout to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <img alt="Head, International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde" class="attachment-bigstoryimage" height="225" scale="0" src="http://www.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Managing-Director-International-Monetary-Fund-Christine-Lagarde.jpg" style="border: none; float: left; margin-right: 10px; padding: 4px;" width="300" /></div> <div class="featured-image-caption" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 10px 0px;"> <small style="font-weight: normal;"><em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">| credits: AFP</span></em></small></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lagarde was finance minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government at the time of the award.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tapie supported Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His case was later referred by Lagarde to a three-member arbitration panel which awarded the compensation.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Investigators suspect he was granted a deal in return for his support of President Sarkozy.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He was once a majority shareholder in sports goods company Adidas but sold it in 1993 in order to become a cabinet minister in Francois Mitterand’s Socialist government.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He sued Credit Lyonnais over its handling of the 1993 sale, alleging the partly state-owned bank had defrauded him by deliberately undervaluing the company.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His case was later referred by Lagarde to a three-member arbitration panel which awarded the compensation.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Investigators suspect he was granted a deal in return for his support of Nicolas Sarkozy.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lagarde, who took over the role of director of the International Monetary Fund in July 2011, said last year that her decision to refer Tapie’s long-running dispute with Credit Lyonnais to a panel of judges was “the best solution at the time”.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although being placed under formal investigation does not necessarily lead to trial, the development could raise questions about the rest of her term at the IMF which is due to end in 2016.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She told AFP news agency she had no intention of resigning from the IMF and said she was due to return to New York later on Wednesday.</span></div> </div> <div class="story-bottom" style="position: relative; text-align: center; top: -10px;"> <div class="wrap"> <div class="widget wpbr-widget" id="story-bottom"> <div class="widget-wrap"> <div class="wpbrad wpbrad-zone" id="wpbrbannerajaxe995f98d56"> <div class="wpbrbanner" id="wpbrbanner139" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 5px; clear: both; height: 90px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: left; width: 728px;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

IMF’s Christine Lagarde under probe

Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, says she has been placed under formal investigation for negligence in French ...

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