Dominique Strauss-Kahn Resigns From I.M.F.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the International Monetary Fund after explosive allegations that he had sexually attacked a cleaning lady in a midtown Manhattan hotel room.

“It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF,” he said in a statement issued Wednesday. “I think at this time first of my wife—whom I love more than anything—of my children, of my family, of my friends.”

His resignation comes just days after he was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport and arrested in connection with the alleged attack.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, had been expected to declare his candidacy for the French presidency soon. He was seen as the figure most likely to oust President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In issuing his resignation Wednesday, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said, “I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.”

News of the arrest produced an earthquake of shock, outrage, disbelief and embarrassment throughout France.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/19imf.html

Pressure Mounts on Strauss-Kahn to Resign

European officials closed ranks to defend their hold on the International Monetary Fund’s top job as pressure mounted on the agency’s jailed leader, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to step down.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the IMF needs to formally name an interim leader because Strauss-Kahn is “obviously not in a position” to run the fund. Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters in Brussels yesterday that Strauss-Kahn “risks damaging the IMF,” and Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, sought his resignation.

At stake is leadership of an institution that approved a record $91.7 billion in emergency loans last year and provides a third of bailout packages in Europe. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest may give emerging markets, the drivers of global growth, momentum to their push to end a postwar deal under which a European heads the fund and the U.S. picks the World Bank president.

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http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-18/europe-seeks-to-keep-top-imf-post-as-strauss-kahn-starts-facing-exit-calls.html