Reuters
Paris

French investigators are looking into the financial dealings of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn after legal complaints by people who put money into a now-bankrupt investment fund he headed, an official in the French judiciary said yesterday.
The inquiry opens a new front in the legal woes of a man who spent years fending off sex offence charges since a New York hotel maid’s accusations ended his career at the International Monetary Fund and his plans to run for president of France.
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer Jean Veil declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Public radio station France Inter said Veil argued in a letter to investigators that Strauss-Kahn did not play a role in day-to-day operations at Leyne Strauss-Kahn Partners (LSK), which was liquidated in late 2014.
Strauss-Kahn, who at the time was building up a career in the private sector, joined the board of the fund in October 2013 and took on the role of president, quitting the latter post a year later, shortly before his partner, LSK founder Thierry Leyne, killed himself.
Earlier this year, Strauss-Kahn was acquitted of offences concerning orgies with prostitutes.
He had previously reached a financial settlement in civil proceedings brought by New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo after criminal charges for sexual offences against him in 2011 were dropped.
Strauss-Kahn, 66, was tipped by opinion polls to win the 2012 presidential election before police escorted him off a plane in New York in May 2011 shortly before he was due to take off for Europe.
Since the end of his public-service duties, Strauss-Kahn has been building up a private-sector career that has included appearances as a conference speaker and ventures in the financial services sector where he built up an impressive contact book as a minister and IMF managing director.