IMF chief to go on trial over payout scandal

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be put on trial over a massive state payout to a businessman in 2008 during her tenure as France’s finance minister, the country’s top court rules.

According to Press TV, last December, a special court ruled that Christine Lagarde should be tried for negligence that paved the way for the payment of 404 million euros (445 million dollars) in compensation to tycoon Bernard Tapie.

Lagarde appealed the court decision, but France’s Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeals in the country, rejected her request on Friday.

She is expected to be tried at the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body that tries ministers for wrongdoing while in office.

The case may go to trial before the end of the year if the judges and lawmakers agree on a specific date, a judicial source said.

Patrick Maisonneuve, the lawyer representing Lagarde, expressed regret over Friday’s court ruling, saying he was convinced that the trial would show her client’s innocence.

Tapie, a former French football team owner and some time pop star, won the payout in 2008 in a case against the French public bank, Credit Lyonnais, arguing that the bank had undervalued his stake in the Adidas sportswear company in the mid-1990s.

Lagarde signed off the payout as France’s then finance minister.

However, investigating magistrates found evidence of carelessness on the part of Lagarde, saying her action had led to a gross “misuse of public money.”

Critics also described Lagarde’s move as a sign of close relationship between the French political elite and magnates such as Tapie, who was close to the then President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

ME