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France - IMF - IMF chief Lagarde faces fourth round of questioning in French corruption case [Radio France Internationale](Radio France Internationale Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Christine Lagarde on Tuesday faced questioning for the fourth time in a mulit-million-euro corruption case linked to her time as a minister under former ... Lagarde made no comment to reporters as she went into the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special court that handles ministerial misconduct cases. But she has previously denied any wrongdoing in a case over a state payout to former tycoon and politician Bernard Tapie when she was finance minister in 2007-8. Tapie was awarded 400 million euros by arbitrators after he claimed that he had been defrauded in the sale of sportswear group Adidas to the Crédit Lyonnais bank, which was partly state-owned at the time. Magistrates are looking into accusations that the arbitration was fixed by the Sarokzy government in return for Tapie's support during the preceding presidential election. They want to know why Lagarde, as finance minister, chose to go to arbitration rather than to court. The IMF chief has escaped criminal charges, which would have obliged her to follow her predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn's example and resign, although she has been placed under a special witness status that means she could be charged later. Five other people have been charged. One of them is here former chief of staff, Stéphane Richard, now head of the Orange telecoms company. He has not hidden his annoyance at receiving harsher treatment than the minister he served and seems to contradict Lagarde as to whether she was personally responsible for a letter relating to the case written in October 2007. More videos available on http://www.english.rfi.fr/ Radio France Internationale - All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). (c) 2014 All rights reserved. Albawaba.com |