With all the recent depressing and relatively boring news on both the international and domestic fronts, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director “the great seducer” Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) was arrested this weekend and continues to be held by New York City Police on various sexual charges arising out of an encounter gone bad in a $3,000-a-night hotel suite.
The world’s shallow 24/7 info-entertainment news media could not have been provided a better gift to distract the masses from what our global business and political elites (including DSK) have been screwing up for decades. This is theatre of the absurd at its very best.
At this early juncture, DSK is being charged with attempted rape and criminal sexual contact in an alleged attack on a maid at the Sofitel Hotel near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 32-year-old maid had worked at the hotel for about 3 years.
On Saturday afternoon, May 14th, the maid alleged to police that when she entered to clean the hotel suite thinking it was empty, DSK jumped out naked from the bathroom; chased her around the suite; sexually assaulted her in a bedroom; dragged her back to a bathroom; forced her to perform oral sex on him; and tried to remove her underwear. She managed to escape and ran off to the hotel’s security and NYC police. DSK quickly left the Hotel (forgetting his cell phone) and went to JFK Airport to catch an Air France flight to Europe. Upon the request by the NYC Police, Port Authority Police apprehended DSK sitting in a plane just a few minutes before its take-off. He just missed accomplishing a Roman Polanski.
DSK is a “socialist” (who knew?) leader in France and was the presumed challenger to current French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the upcoming elections. DSK, currently aged 62, is married to Anne Sinclair, a former French TV journalist. He is also father of four grown children. DSK and Ms. Sinclair live in Washington DC and Paris. Ms. Sinclair has publicly issued a standard statement of complete support for her spouse but likely she is simultaneously consulting her own attorneys.
In 2008, DSK was briefly investigated over whether he had an improper relationship with a subordinate female employee. The IMF board found his actions “reflected a serious error of judgment” yet deemed the relationship consensual. That was a relief for the French on many levels – particularly since it involved a woman and not a man.
In France on Monday May 16th a women named Tristane Banon, speaking though her attorney, said she was sexually assaulted by DSK in 2002. She now wants to file a legal complaint against the DSK because she was dissuaded from filing suit 9 years ago by her own mother, a regional Socialist official.
DSK’s close friends and political allies, and even many among France’s elite are shocked and cannot believe the charges. However for many years, female journalists refused to interview him un-chaperoned for fear of being groped. Many rumors circled concerning DSK’s alleged womanizing and other indiscrete activities. Thus hearing people express “shock” merely resembles the same cynical phrase uttered by Claude Raines playing a French official in the movie Casablanca.
France’s Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet lamented the shadow the incident could cast on all of France. On French TV, she stated that in addition to the hotel maid, there is another “clear victim, which is France.” She should do stand-up comedy. The global view of France is certainly is more diverse and multi-faceted than what shocks a few French elites that are equally out-of-touch with reality as their contemporaries in the U.S. and around the globe.
A prior French “Socialist” President Francois Mitterrand maintained two households during much of his lifetime – one for his official spouse and family, and another for his mistress and his other family. They all attended his televised state funeral. Most people give the wealthy and powerful around the world quite a bit of leeway with respect to their personal affairs.
Candidates for the French Presidency need to announce their intentions this summer in order to run in fall primary elections. If convicted of the original charges or any lesser-included ones, DSK would likely be in U.S. prison during the next several months or years – eliminating any political plans he might have in France. After a few weeks of U.S. jail food, he’ll probably be admitted to a hospital for severe indigestion. Would he be released on bail if he surrendered his passport? Pending a trial, would he have to stay in the U.S. with an electronic device affixed around his ankle?
Most top French officials pointed out that under U.S. and French law “There is the principle of presumed innocence.” There is also no diplomatic immunity in this case so France is really limited in what it can do on his behalf. Perhaps this is a huge plot to ruin DSK’s Presidential chances. Some French officials and DSK supporters have already raised suspicions about the veracity of the sexual assault charges. His Defense attorneys will likely put the hotel maid on trial.
Most French politicians and journalists acknowledge that attempted rape charges are far more serious than extramarital flings and could do far more damage to his reputation in France and abroad. Many years ago, famous film director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. to escape sentencing on a plea bargain to a lesser-included sexual charge against a minor. Last year Swiss authorities refused his extradition to the U.S. and he has never served any time for his crimes. Long ago, Mr. Polanski’s attorneys arranged a large financial settlement with the victim and her family to avoid a civil suit. The victim refused to cooperate in the original rape prosecution and in last year’s extradition efforts.
A man of DSK’s wealth and influence might be able to pay his way out of facing criminal justice. Alternatively U.S. justice officials might want to be very aggressive in this case in order to combat their poor reputation as tolerating a two-tier system – one set of rules for the elites and another for the rest of us.
DSK became head of the IMF in November 2007. The multi-national lending agency provides assistance via emergency loans to countries facing severe financial problems. These situations are created by years of foolish taxing and spending policies or by mindlessly having the public guarantee the speculative losses incurred by private financial institutions. The IMF is responsible for one-third of Greece’s existing loan package. Perhaps the pressure of handling so many national financial messes around the globe finally got to DSK.
DSK’s Defense attorneys might claim that DSK temporarily “lost his sanity” while in NYC this past weekend. Perhaps he believed the maid was an elected official from Greece, Ireland, Portugal or elsewhere. He lost his ability to distinguish “consensual” from “non-consensual” having spent many years at the top of the IMF – an organization that frequently confuses the two when making offers to bankrupt nations to restructure their debts.
It will be interesting to see the background and identity of the Maid. One good possibility in light of the demographics of and hotel employment situation in New York City she is either of Dominican or Ukrainian origin. It would further muddy the charges if she were very attractive. Perhaps new allegations that she was paid by members of political parties opposed to DSK and the French socialists might surface as a plot to get DSK in a compromising position.
The frustrating part of these types of claims, charges and defenses, is that they often depend upon the believability of the parties involved and a jury debate over “he said versus she said.” In the end, the resolution of a dispute or a conviction on such grounds without independent witnesses provides few people the satisfaction that the whole truth was discovered.
Nevertheless, this unfolding scandal should continue for months and it will probably overshadow anything else the IMF tries to do. I’m sure the Greeks are laughing their heads off and they have concluded they won’t have to pay their bad debts to the IMF anytime soon.
Could not have DSK found an escort or call girl over the Internet? Many Hotels in NYC provide such discrete services to their $3,000-a-night patrons. Even if he didn’t have the cash, former NY Governor Elliot Spitzer and other high-placed officials paid for their prostitutes with credit cards. Or does the 62-year-old “great seducer” still think he can get his way with women without paying anything because of his personality, power and physical characteristics? The vast majority of men over 50 are not going to have sex with many women without using their wealth or influence. Perhaps the Defense of “impaired judgment” by an egotistical man way past his prime might be plead by DSK’s attorneys.
The unfortunate part of the Wall Street scandals is that they involve investigating and proving complex legal and accounting frauds. From all investigations to date, there have been no sexual allegations but plenty of esoteric and fraudulent financial instruments designed to “screw” millions of investors and the general public out of trillions of dollars. Prosecutors at the Federal and State levels are not very interested in slogging out difficult cases when the alleged criminals are big financial contributors to both political parties and to their colleagues in public office. These many serious criminal actions that brought down the U.S. and global economies in 2008 will likely go unprosecuted.
The ultimate travesty of Justice upon the people and Constitution of the U.S. will be the legacy of our nation’s 21st Century leaders with respect to the massive fraud and criminality of Wall Street. To help us forget, our corporate shills known as the U.S. Media will happily obsess over the DSK affair for months – as they did with Tiger Woods and his mistresses. The common people are more fascinated by the many personal scandals that perpetually plague our global elites and celebrities for decades.
I look forward to covering this sordid affair for some time to come.
Posted on 5/16/11 by Marc Pascal, way out in Phoenix, Arizona. This TMV writer extends his gratitude to Monsieur DSK for providing a treasure-trove of grist and gossip for this post and possibly many more as the story unfolds. I suspect my readers have grown tired of my endless tirades against the global Oligarchy that is choking the life out of the U.S. and most of the world. Instead, it is far more delicious and entertaining to comment on a member of that same Oligarchy who had “waaaaay” too much fun on an unlimited expense account. My TMV readership always soars and I get quoted or linked elsewhere in the blogosphere when I write about sex – but unfortunately I harped to death the subjects of Catholic Priests, Roman Polanski, and Tiger Woods. Now I’ve been thrown a reprieve and a delightful chance to wade back happily into the muck of our 21st Century Western society. It’s fun to see members of the world’s narcissistic and greedy Oligarchy be exposed as the same stupid fools as mere mortals – except they have far too much money, power, influence and connections to suffer the same consequences.