Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirmed Wednesday in a statement that French prosecutors have placed her under official observation over corruption allegations that date back to the time when she was finance minister under French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The announcement came soon after authorities had questioned her over involvement in a €405 million ($533 million) state payout made in 2008 to disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie, who was also described as a career socialist.
The French Court of Justice of the Republic alleges that Tapie had received preferential treatment because he supported the center-right campaign of Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election. Tapie, who was imprisoned for match fixing when he owned the Olympique de Marseille football club, has already explained that he believes he and Sarkozy are victims of a “plot.”
Although Lagarde was first identified as a neutral witness, it wasn’t until the fourth questioning session that authorities made the decision to put her under an official French probe. This is one step closer to being charged as they believe they are short of one piece of evidence that could send Lagarde to trial.
“After three years of investigation and dozens of hours of interrogation, the committee concluded that I had not been guilty of any infraction,” Lagarde said in a statement, according to the New York Times. “So it was reduced to claiming that I had been insufficiently vigilant during the arbitration.”
If found guilty then the IMF chief could spend up to one year in prison and also be slapped with a €15,000 ($19,775) fine. It could also shed some light into the suspected cronyism that transpired throughout the Sarkozy presidency – Sarkozy left office in May 2012 and was succeeded by President Francois Hollande.
Gerry Rice, IMF communications director, released a statement noting that Lagarde was returning to Washington and will have no further comment on the matter. Furthermore, Lagarde informed Agence-France Presse (AFP) that she has no intentions of stepping down from the global financial body.
