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Strauss-Kahn lawyers deny $6m deal with hotel maid

Former IMF boss's lawyers say a resolution with his accuser Nafissatou Diallo has been discussed but no settlement has been agreed.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has discussed an out of court settlement with the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in a luxury New York City hotel last May, but has yet to reach a settlement agreement, it emerged on Friday, reports France 24.

French media reported on Friday morning that Strauss-Kahn had agreed to hand over $6 million (4.6 million euros) to Nafissatou Diallo, but his lawyers, William Taylor and Amit Mehta, denied the reports in a brief statement later in the day.

"The parties have discussed a resolution but there has been no settlement. Mr Strauss-Kahn will continue to defend the charges if no resolution can be reached," Taylor and Mehta said. "Media reports that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has agreed to pay six million dollars to settle the civil case are flatly false."

Diallo's legal team did not comment.

According to Le Monde, Strauss-Kahn was to raise the money by borrowing $3 million from a bank and the rest from his estranged wife, Anne Sinclair, a former newsreader who inherited a fortune from her art dealer father.

Until now, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers repeatedly said they would not agree to a pay-off deal, while Diallo's legal team insisted she wanted her day in court to confront her alleged abuser.

Diallo's allegation of attempted rape in May 2011 triggered a stunning fall from grace for Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as likely to win the 2012 French presidential election against then president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Read more of this report from France 24.