LILLE, France — Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was cleared of pimping charges yesterday in France, putting an end to four years of legal drama that began with a sexual assault charge in a New York hotel room.
Strauss-Kahn’s trial on aggravated pimping charges in the northern city of Lille hinged on sex parties that took place in the midst of the global financial crisis.
Strauss-Kahn had told the court the parties were much-needed “recreational sessions” at a time of intense pressure to steer the world through economic peril, and he did not know the women who took part were prostitutes. In often sordid testimony, the women described sometimes-brutal nights that, they said, were not fun for them at all. /AP