Dr Dominique Strauss Khan,? Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief,? has reached a settlement with New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo to end her lawsuit for attempted rape, U.S. and French media reported on Friday.
Citing unnamed sources, the New York Times said Strauss-Kahn, 63, and Diallo, 33, had “quietly'' struck a deal to scrap the case.
France's Le Monde said Strauss-Kahn had offered Diallo six million dollars to withdraw the suit, half of which he planned to borrow from a bank and half from his wife Anne Sinclair.
Strauss-Kahn's French lawyers issued a statement “vigorously'' denying the Le Monde report, saying it was based on “fanciful and erroneous'' information.??
Sinclair, who separated from Strauss-Kahn this summer and edits the French edition of the Huffington Post news site, is the heiress to an art collector's fortune.
It was she who posted bail of one million dollars and a bond of five million dollars after Strauss-Kahn was arrested in May 2011 on charges of sexually assaulting Diallo and jailed in the city's notorious Rikers Island prison.
Diallo, a Guinean immigrant, accused the former French finance minister of trying to force himself on her when she arrived to clean his suite at the Sofitel hotel on May 14, 2011.
Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his position as IMF chief over the affair, admitted to a sexual encounter, but insisted it was consensual.
Prosecutors dropped the charges after two months saying they had concerns about Diallo's credibility. But she maintained the allegations in a civil lawsuit, accusing Strauss-Kahn of a “violent and sadistic'' attack.
At the time of his arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been preparing to announce plans to seek his Socialist Party's nomination to run for President against Nicolas Sarkozy.
The case, which triggered a string of allegations against the high-flying economist, dealt a knockout blow to those ambitions.
French writer Tristane Banon accused him of attempted rape during an interview in 2003.
Investigators found no evidence to support that claim, but said there was evidence to suggest sexual assault, an offence that was no longer prosecutable due to the statute of limitations.
He still faces a possible trial in the northern city of Lille, where prosecutors have charged him with involvement in a prostitution ring that supplied women for sex parties organised on his behalf while he was IMF Chief.
The prosecutors will announce in early January whether the case will go to court.
Strauss-Kahn, whose economic insights are still sought at international conferences, has admitted to participating in sex parties in France, Belgium and Washington, but denied knowing the women were prostitutes.
His lawyers have accused the French media and justice system of being bent on his “ruin''.
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