Christine Lagarde: IMF Chief's Flat Raided

Christine Lagarde: IMF Chief's Flat Raided


The boss of the International Monetary Fund becomes
involved in a probe into a supporter of French ex-premier Nicolas Sarkozy.


2:54pm UK,
Wednesday 20 March 2013


Police have searched the flat of Christine Lagarde, the
boss of the IMF








French police have searched the flat of IMF chief Christine
Lagarde in relation to a probe into a supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Lagarde's lawyer said her Paris apartment was examined as part of an
investigation into her handling of a 2008 compensation payment to a businessman
supporter of the French ex-president.

Police are investigating claims that Ms Lagarde, when finance minister under
Mr Sarkozy, acted illegally in approving the 285m euro (£250m) arbitration
payout to Bernard Tapie.

Ms Lagarde in 2007 ordered a panel of judges to arbitrate in a dispute
between Mr Tapie and the bank Credit Lyonnais, which led to the disgraced tycoon
being awarded the payout.

She denies any wrongdoing.

"This search will help uncover the truth, which will contribute to
exonerating my client from any criminal wrongdoing," Ms Lagarde's lawyer, Yves
Repiquet, told Reuters.

It was conducted a day after France's budget minister resigned after being
targeted in a tax fraud inquiry.

Socialist President Francois Hollande came to power last May vowing to crack
down on the cozy relationships between politicians and businessmen he said were
rife under Mr Sarkozy.

Ms Lagarde was in Frankfurt and not in her Paris flat at the time of the
search, a spokesman for the IMF chief said. She arrived in the city on Tuesday
for the Frankfurt Finance Summit.

In the last few days, she has been involved in the discussions over the
bailout for Cyprus, amid the country's impending bankruptcy.

She joined the finance ministers of the 17 Eurozone countries in weekend
discussions that put together a rescue plan for the beleagured island that
involved a raid on savings.

She told Time Magazine that the Cyprus crisis risked spreading to other
countries.

Yesterday, the rescue plan put together by the Eurogroup and the IMF was
rejected by Cypriot MPs, forcing the search for an alternative solution.

The International Monetary Fund refused to comment on the raid on
Wednesday.

"As we have said before, it would not be appropriate to comment on a case
that has been and is currently before the French judiciary," said IMF spokesman
Gerry Rice in a statement made shortly after the raid.

"Prior to its selection of the Managing Director, however, the IMF's
Executive Board discussed this issue and expressed its confidence that Madame
Lagarde would be able to effectively carry out her duties as Managing Director,"
Mr Rice said.

Lagarde, previously France's finance minister, was chosen to lead the global
crisis lender in 2011 after her predecessor, ex-French politician Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, was forced to resign after being arrested in New York in a scandal
involving sex with a hotel chambermaid

18 April 2013 Last updated at 12:18
]







French court summons IMF chief over Bernard Tapie
probe


Christine Lagarde denies any
misconduct
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

• IMF 'has confidence' in Lagarde
  
• IMF head Lagarde's flat searched
  
• Profile: Christine Lagarde
  

IMF chief Christine Lagarde has been
summoned by a French court to answer questions over alleged abuse of office
during her time as France's finance minister, her lawyer has said.

Ms Lagarde is to be questioned before a magistrate in May over her role in
the awarding of financial compensation to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008.

Ms Lagarde, who took over as IMF chief in 2011, denies any wrongdoing.

Her apartment was searched last month as part of the ongoing
investigation.

As finance minister, Ms Lagarde referred Mr Tapie's long-running dispute with
bank Credit Lyonnais to an arbitration panel, which awarded him 400m euros
(£340m) damages.

Mr Tapie was a supporter of ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Critics say she abused her authority but Ms Lagarde denies any
wrongdoing.

The IMF voiced their backing to Ms Lagarde in a statement last month, saying:
"The executive board continues to express its confidence in the managing
director's ability to effectively carry out her duties."


Ms Lagarde's flat was raided by French police in March, but she has not been
formally charged with any crime.

Her lawyer, Yves Repiquet, told the AFP news agency she would now "finally
have the opportunity to provide the court with explanations and clarifications
that will exonerate her of any criminal responsibility".

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says investigators suspect Mr Tapie was
granted a deal in return for his support of President Sarkozy in the 2007
election.

There is speculation in France that Ms Lagarde could yet be placed under
formal investigation in this case, he adds.

The origins of the case date back 20 years.

Continue reading the main story
Bernard Tapie case

• 1993: Credit Lyonnais bank handles sale of Adidas, in which
  Bernard Tapie is a majority stakeholder
  
• 1993-2007: Court battle drags on as Mr Tapie claims Credit
  Lyonnais undervalued the sale and that he was cheated following the winding-up
  of the once publicly-owned bank
  
• 2007: Mr Tapie, a former Socialist, switches to support
  Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election. Ms Lagarde, Mr Sarkozy's finance
  minister, intervenes in the Tapie case to order binding arbitration
  
• 2008: Special panel of judges rules Mr Tapie should receive
  damages of 285m euros (400m after interest added)
  
• 2011: Public prosecutor recommends judicial investigation
  into her actions
  
• March 2013: French police search Lagarde's Paris
  apartment
  
• April 2013: Lagarde receives summons to appear before
  magistrate for questioning
  

Mr Tapie, who has long been active in French business,
sporting and political circles, sued Credit Lyonnais over its handling of the
sale in 1993 of sportswear brand Adidas, in which he was a majority
stakeholder.

After years in the courts, the case was referred by Ms Lagarde to an
arbitration panel in 2007 and she approved its decision to award
damages.
Public money
Critics said the case should not have been settled by private arbitration,
since public money was at stake in the bank, which was part-owned by the
state.

The settlement Mr Tapie received is believed to be a far greater sum than he
would likely have received from the courts.

In an interview in January, Ms Lagarde stood by her decision, saying it was
"the best solution at the time".

However, our correspondent says that Ms Lagarde's position at the IMF could
be in jeopardy if she is placed under formal investigation.

Her term as IMF chief does not expire until 2016, but amid the complexities
of Europe's economic crisis this is a distraction she can ill afford, he
adds.

See how it has all gone quiet...Lagarde and Sarkozy were alleged to have colluded to agree a dodgy loan, but because she heads the IMF there has been no more reporting. However, Lagarde has not done a good job as Head of the IMF, considered to have spent too much time and money on propping up the Euro when the IMF is supposed to aid worthy Countries around the World.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde averted being charged by a Paris court investigating her decision to allow arbitration that benefited a supporter of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
After two days of questioning, the court named Lagarde --who was French finance minister under Sarkozy -- a material witness in the case. The status, while not precluding charges later, shouldn’t hurt her ability to stay at the IMF helm, saidJacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.





Enlarge image
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde



Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde was heard by the Cour de Justice de la Republique, which focuses on ministers’ actions in office.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde was heard by the Cour de Justice de la Republique, which focuses on ministers’ actions in office. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
“This is what everyone would have wanted,” Kirkegaard said in a phone interview. “No one at the IMF board would be interested in having another divisive decision to make about a new managing director, that would be hugely disruptive.”
Lagarde, who has denied any wrongdoing, was heard by the Cour de Justice de la Republique, which focuses on ministers’actions in office. The court was looking into whether she erred in agreeing to arbitration to end a dispute involving business tycoon Bernard Tapie that awarded him about $500 million.
“I was able to provide information to demonstrate that I always acted in the best public interest and in accordance with the law,” Lagarde, 57, said in a statement in Paris late yesterday after the court’s hearing.
A lawyer by training, she said she was heading back to Washington to explain details of the case to the IMF’s board. The IMF, in a separate statement yesterday, confirmed a meeting would take place in the coming days.
Board Support

“The executive board has been briefed on this matter several times and on each occasion expressed confidence in the managing director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties,” the 188-country institution said in an e-mailed statement following the court’s decision.
Lagarde took over the Washington-based fund in 2011 as the institution was reeling from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit the job as he faced allegations including the attempted rape of a hotel maid in New York. The charges were later dropped and he settled the maid’s lawsuit last year.
Lagarde continuing at the IMF “will be seen widely within the IMF and outside the IMF as a good thing because she is highly regarded and because the IMF is playing a very strategic role at the moment in many crucial debates,” said Uri Dadush, director of international economics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Europe’s Recession

The fund is grappling with a recession in the euro area, contributing to four bailouts in the region, trying to resolve Egyptian aid talks and facing plans by some emerging countries to create their own development banks.
In the Tapie case, the businessman, who has also dabbled in politics and acting, in 2008 won a 385 million-euro ($497 million) arbitration award to settle a dispute over his company’s sale of German sportswear brand Adidas AG. (ADS)
He contended that Credit Lyonnais mishandled the 1993 sale and pursued a claim against the formerly state-owned bank’s liquidator.
Tapie, a minister for less than a year under former Socialist President Francois Mitterrand in the 1990s, endorsed Sarkozy’s successful presidential effort in 2007 and failed re-election bid in 2012.
The arbitration court awarded Tapie 45 million euros in damages on top of 240 million euros for his creditors and about 100 million euros in interest. Lagarde refused to appeal the decision, saying “a very large majority” of the money would return to the state through the creditors’ claims.
The court opened its investigation into whether there was“complicity in forgery” or “complicity in misuse of public funds” in the case in 2011, soon after Lagarde became IMF head.

IMF’s Lagarde Heard by Court in Sarkozy-Ally Arbitration Probe


By Sandrine Rastello & Gregory Viscusi - May 23, 2013 10:20 AM GMT+010
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde is testifying this morning at a Paris court investigating her decision to allow an arbitration that benefited a supporter of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Lagarde, who was finance minister under Sarkozy and has denied any wrongdoing, arrived for the questioning at 8:15 a.m. local time in a silver-gray Ford Mondeo. The Cour de Justice de la Republique, which focuses on ministers’ actions in office, is looking into whether she erred in agreeing to an arbitration to end a dispute involving business tycoon Bernard Tapie that awarded him about $500 million.
After the interrogation, Lagarde, a lawyer by training, could be placed under formal investigation, the French equivalent of being charged, or under a lesser status. It’ll be up to the IMF board to reaffirm its support for her at a time when the fund is grappling with a recession in the euro area, four bailouts in the region, drawn-out Egyptian aid talks and emerging countries’ plans to create their own development banks.
“This is the worst possible time for Lagarde to have to cope with events back home,” said Martin Edwards, an associate professor at Seton Hall University’s John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations in South Orange, New Jersey. “She needs to be out front now more than ever.”
Lagarde isn’t the first IMF chief to face legal difficulties. She took over the Washington-based fund as the institution was reeling from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges including the alleged rape of a hotel maid in New York. The charges were later dropped and he settled the maid’s lawsuit last year.
Spanish Investigation

His predecessor, Rodrigo Rato, was last year named an official suspect in the Spanish national court’s investigation of alleged fraud related to the collapse of Bankia SA (BKIA), where the former IMF head resigned as chairman a year ago. Rato has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, under French law, none of the outcomes of the Lagarde hearings that began today presumes that she will stand trial when the investigation ends.
Businessman Tapie, who has also dabbled in politics and acting, in 2008 won a 385 million-euro ($495 million) arbitration award to settle a dispute over his company’s sale of German sportswear brand Adidas AG. (ADS) He contended that Credit Lyonnais mishandled the 1993 sale and pursued a claim against the formerly state-owned bank’s liquidator.
Lagarde’s Stand

Tapie, a minister for less than a year under former Socialist President Francois Mitterrand in the 1990s, endorsed Sarkozy’s successful presidential effort in 2007 and failed re-election bid in 2012.
The arbitration court awarded Tapie 45 million euros in damages on top of 240 million euros for his creditors and about 100 million euros in interest. Lagarde refused to appeal the decision, saying “a very large majority” of the money would return to the state through the creditors’ claims.
The court opened its investigation into whether there was“complicity in forgery” or “complicity in misuse of public funds” in the case in 2011, soon after Lagarde became IMF head.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” Lagarde told journalists last month in Washington. “Ever since 2011 I have known very well that I would be heard by the investigating commission of the Cour de Justice.”
Tapie sought to distance himself from Lagarde and her hearing, saying this morning in a Europe 1 radio interview that she “wasn’t very nice to me” and that the case against her“doesn’t concern me at all.”

IMF chief avoids charges in French payout scandal
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde at the International Monetary and Financial Committee meeting during the 2013 World Bank/IMF Spring meetings in Washington. (File photo: AFP)
AFP, Paris
IMF chief Christine Lagarde avoided immediate charges on Friday but was named an “assisted witness” after French prosecutors grilled her for two days over a state payout to a disgraced tycoon when she was finance minister.

Lagarde was questioned for a total of 24 hours by prosecutors working for a court that probes cases of ministerial misconduct over her 2007 handling of a row that resulted in 400 million euros ($515 million) being paid to controversial business figure Bernard Tapie.

“My status as assisted witness is not a surprise,” she told reporters as she left the Paris courthouse late on Friday.

“I have always acted in the best public interest and in accordance with the law,” said Lagarde, 57, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“My explanations came as a response to the doubts that had been brought up regarding the decisions I had taken at the time,” she added.

While Lagarde avoided being placed under formal investigation -- the closest equivalent in French law to being charged -- her “assisted witness” status means she could still face further questions -- and possibly charges -- at a later stage.

Lagarde said she would now return to Washington and report to the board of the International Monetary Fund, which again expressed confidence in its first woman leader after learning of the court’s decision.

“Now it’s time for me to return to Washington to pursue my mission as managing director of the IMF,” she said outside the court.

The chic Lagarde, considered one of the world’s most powerful women, won respect as France’s first female finance minister for her no-nonsense attitude, intellect and style.

Criminal charges against Lagarde would have been an embarrassment for the IMF, after her predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also from France, resigned in disgrace in 2011 over an alleged assault on a New York hotel maid.

“The board will be briefed again in the coming days,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement on Friday.

“The Executive Board has been briefed on this matter several times and on each occasion expressed confidence in the managing director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties,” he added.

The investigation concerns Tapie, a former politician, who went to prison for match-fixing during his time as president of French football club Olympique de Marseille.

Prosecutors working for the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) suspect he received favourable treatment in return for supporting Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.

They have suggested Lagarde -- who at the time was finance minister -- was partly responsible for “numerous anomalies and irregularities” which could lead to charges for complicity in fraud and misappropriation of public funds.

The investigation centres on her 2007 move to ask a panel of judges to arbitrate in a dispute between Tapie and Credit Lyonnais, the collapsed, partly state-owned bank, over his 1993 sale of sports group Adidas.

Tapie had accused Credit Lyonnais of defrauding him by consciously undervaluing Adidas at the time of the sale and argued that the state, as the former principal shareholder in the bank, should compensate him.

His arguments were upheld by the arbitration panel but critics claimed the state should not have taken the risk of being forced to pay compensation to a convicted criminal who, as he was bankrupt at the time, would not have been able to pursue the case through the courts.

The payment Tapie received enabled him to clear his huge debts and tax liabilities and, according to media reports, left him with 20 million to 40 million euros which he has used to relaunch his business career.

Tapie, who recently purchased a newspaper group in the south of France and has acquired a luxury yacht, a Bombardier jet and several top properties in the south of France and Paris, said in an interview Friday that he had “less than 100 million euros” from the payout if one deducted the taxes he paid and what he owed his creditors.

“About the sum, I can affirm... that Christine Lagarde had saved the state several billion euros by opting for arbitrage,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.

Lagarde has said the arbitration was necessary to put an end to a costly dispute, and has always denied having acted under orders from Sarkozy.

Lagarde May Be Called as Witness in Bankia Fraud Investigation

By Ben Sills - Jul 10, 2013 12:03 PM GMT+0100.





..

Private prosecutors driving an investigation into allegations of fraud at Bankia SA (BKIA) requested that International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde be called as a witness, court papers show.

Lawyers for Union, Progress & Democracy, the Spanish political party whose complaint triggered the probe, asked Judge Fernando Andreu to call Lagarde and another IMF official to answer questions about what they told Spanish authorities in the months before the ouster of Rodrigo Rato, a former IMF chief himself, as Bankia chairman in May 2012, according to court filings dated today.





Enlarge image









The filings show International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde is only being called as a witness and the UPD lawyers make no suggestion that she or other officials working for the IMF did anything wrong. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
.
The filings show Lagarde is only being called as a witness and the UPD lawyers make no suggestion that she or other officials working for the IMF did anything wrong. A spokeswoman for the IMF, who asked not to be named, declined to comment.

Prosecutors are trying to discredit Rato’s argument that Bankia was a victim of the rapid deterioration of the Spanish economy as the European debt crisis intensified after the lender’s July 2011 initial public offering. The former deputy prime minister is battling a potential jail term over the collapse of Bankia which forced Spain to seek a 41 billion-euro rescue package from the European Union.

IMF Report

UPD representatives Andres Herzog and Maria Jose Bueno Ramirez said in the petition that they want to question Lagarde about three meetings she had with Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos in the first months of 2012 when Valencia, Spain-based Bankia’s problems were discussed. They also seek to study an IMF report from April 25, 2012, highlighting one large Spanish bank that required swift action to bolster its balance sheet, the filing shows.

The questions for Lagarde will focus on four areas: when Bankia became a serious problem in the fund’s view; Bankia’s capital needs; the difference between the IMF’s assessment and that of the Bank of Spain; and the fund’s intentions in publishing the April 25 report.

Rato, named as an official suspect last year over allegations including false accounting and embezzlement, has played down expressions of concern from the IMF before Bankia’s 22 billion euro ($28 billion) bailout, the filing shows. The lender’s former chairman said in court testimony cited in today’s filing that he interpreted the April 25 report as an endorsement of his plans to clean up the lender.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/71921262-imf-chief-christine-lagarde-s-salary-disclosed.html


Can't be bad $467, 940 Tax Free, plus she would get travel expenses......doesn't compare with Banks though.

IMF Should Ask U.S. to Review Argentina Case: Lagarde

By Joshua Goodman & Ryan Chilcote - Jul 20, 2013 4:30 PM GMT+0100.
.

Facebook Share
Tweet
LinkedIn
Google +1
21 Comments

Print

QUEUE


Q

..

A U.S. court ruling against Argentina in a decade-old legal battle over its defaulted debt could have “detrimental consequences” for global financial stability, said Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Lagarde said in Moscow today that she’ll recommend that the IMF’s board ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling ordering Argentina to pay investors who refused to exchange bonds after its 2001 default on $95 billion of debt.

The friend-of-the-court brief to the high court wouldn’t be aimed at helping Argentina, whom the IMF censured in February for providing inaccurate inflation data, Lagarde said after a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs in the Russian capital. It would rather serve to warn of how the ruling could bolster the power of minority bondholders in future debt restructurings, she said.

“We’re not supporting one party against the other,” Lagarde said. “We’re simply alerting the court to the detrimental consequence that the finding would have on our ability to discharge our mandate, which is intended to maintain financial stability in the world.”

Argentina, a G-20 member, claims that a federal appeals court in New York was wrong when it ruled in October that investors in restructured Argentine debt can’t be paid unless holders of the nation’s defaulted bonds, led by billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. and its NML Capital Ltd. unit, are also paid. Last month it asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court rulings.

Complex Case

Lagarde declined to discuss details of the Argentine case, which she described as complex, except to say that it’s in the interest of creditors as a group to reach agreement with debtors in a manner that ensures debt sustainability and fairness among creditors.

“Our concern is that the lower court’s decision would undermine the ability of the debtors and creditors to reach an agreement,” she said. “In that respect it could be a threat to financial stability.”

Argentina’s Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino declined to comment yesterday on media reports about the IMF’s intention to file the brief, saying the government would wait to respond until the IMF’s board reaches a decision.

=========================

I think Lagarde has overstepped the remit of the IMF and needs to be careful the US does not turn on her for her handling of the EURO crisis.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde escapes formal investigation in court

Reuters | Updated: May 25, 2013 08:46 IST













inShare.








Ads by Google


Accident Claim Lawyers – Contact Injury Lawyers 4U™ No Win No Fee Compensation

www.InjuryLawyers4U.co.uk









Paris: French magistrates decided on Friday not to place International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde under formal investigation over her role in a 285-million-euro arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Lagarde instead was given the status of a "supervised witness" after two full days of questioning on her 2008 decision as Sarkozy's finance minister to use arbitration to settle a legal battle between the state and businessman Bernard Tapie.

The decision removes a headache for Lagarde, the only French national heading a major international institution today, and for the IMF, for which a formal investigation of her would have been highly embarrassing.



Emerging from a Paris court late on Friday evening, a composed-looking Lagarde read from a statement asserting that she had not acted against the public interest.

"My explanations answered questions raised about the decisions that I had made at the time," she told reporters. "My status as a supervised witness is not a surprise for me because I always acted in the interest of the state and according to the law."

She added: "Now, it's time for me to go back to work in Washington, and I will of course be briefing my board."

The status of supervised witness means that in any future hearings, Lagarde would answer questions as a witness accompanied by a lawyer.

It is much less serious than being placed under formal investigation, which would have indicated "serious or consistent evidence" pointing to her probable implication in a crime.

The IMF reaffirmed its confidence in Lagarde, who took over the helm after her predecessor, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, quit in mid-2011 over a sex assault scandal.

"The Executive Board has been briefed on this matter several times and on each occasion expressed confidence in the Managing Director's ability to effectively carry out her duties," spokesman Gerry Rice said in Washington.

FURTHER QUESTIONS?

The case goes back to 1993 when Tapie, a colourful and often controversial character in the French business and sports world, sued the state for compensation after selling his stake in sports company Adidas to then state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais.

Also a one-time Socialist minister who later supported the conservative Sarkozy, Tapie said the bank defrauded him after it resold the stake for a much higher sum. Credit Lyonnais, now part of Credit Agricole , has denied wrongdoing.

Lagarde was not accused of financially profiting herself from the payout and has denied doing anything wrong by opting for an arbitration process that enriched Tapie. With interest, the award amounted to 403 million euros.

However the court, which specialises in cases involving ministers, targeted her for complicity in the misuse of funds because she overruled advisers to seek the settlement.

Tapie told the BFM news channel he would not comment on a legal decision, but he angrily berated a commentator who said it meant that he could keep his money from the payout. He told French media that he only had 100 million euros left.

Arbitration specialist Thomas Clay noted, however, that Lagarde had not been cleared of involvement in the controversial settlement and there was a still a possibility she could be placed under investigation if new evidence came to light.

"She could be brought before the court again, or not," he said. "For the moment we are at the inquiry stage."
© Thomson Reuters 2013