IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn Jailed in New York for Sexual Assault

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and considered a leading candidate to be the next president of France, was hauled off an airplane at JFK airport Saturday and arrested for a sexual assault at a New York hotel earlier in the day.

A police spokeman told Reuters that the woman who filed the complaint against the 62-year-old international executive was a chambermaid, 32, at the Sofitel, a hotel near Times Square where he was staying. She told police that when she entered the room, Strauss-Kahn "allegedly threw the maid on the rooms bed and forced her" to perform sex. He did let the maid leave, according to the report --and soon afterward, leaving his cell phone behind, headed off to Kennedy Airport for his flight to Paris.

On Sunday morning, he told authorities he is not guilty and will plead not guilty.

This isn't the first time Strauss-Kahn has been investigated for sexual misconduct. In 2008 the IMF hired a law firm to investigate whether its chief had an improper relationship with a female employee. Though he "apologized for the error in judgment," he denied he had abused his position. CNN reported Sunday that the IMF had put him on probation.

Strauss-Kahn, who is married to French TV personality Anne Sinclair, took over the International Monetary Fund in November 2007. Before that, he was a member of the French National Assembly and a professor of economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

CNN further reports Strauss-Kahn's background:

"A former French finance minister, he sought the Socialist Party nomination for president in 2006, losing out to Segolene Royal. She, in turn, lost to Nicolas Sarkozy the following year.

"Strauss-Kahn, meanwhile, became head of the International Monetary Fund, and has led it during the global financial crisis.

"The Washington-based agency has helped to bail out the economies of Greece and Ireland under his leadership, part of an effort to prop up Europe's currency, the euro.

"He was finance minister when his own country joined the newly-created euro, ditching the French franc."

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