PARIS (MNI) – French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who is the
leading candidate to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the helm of the
International Monetary Fund but has not yet been cleared of doubts about
her role in a domestic legal affair, faces new complications in that
case, the French daily Le Monde revealed Wednesday.
The French Court of Justice will decide on July 8 whether to launch
an investigation into Lagarde’s decision to resolve a long, costly court
battle with the entrepreneur Bernard Tapie in 2008 through legal
arbitration, which obliged the government to pay Tapie E400 million in
compensation.
Doubts about the impartiality of one of three arbiters had been
raised by two experts at the time, the newspaper said, citing documents
apparently ignored by the Finance Ministry.
In addition, the Paris prosecutor has begun a preliminary
investigation of charges of “abuse of social powers” against one of the
top ministry officials involved in the resolution of the conflict with
Tapie.
Lagarde has repeatedly argued that the recourse to arbitration was
the cheapest and safest way to avoid much larger potential losses for
the government.
Still, in the wake of the arrest of the former French minister
Strauss-Kahn, the IMF executive board would be walking on thin ice to
select Lagarde as his successor before the French justice system decides
whether or not to open an investigation into the arbitration case.
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