Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to seek damages for "calumny" following allegations of "fraud" and "misuse of company assets" at the now-defunct investment firm Leyne-Strauss-Kahn Partners (LSK), his lawyer Jein Veil said on Saturday, reports FRANCE 24.
The claim is to be filed next week with the public prosecutor of Paris, Veil said.
On Friday the Paris prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation when two lawsuits were filed against LSK company managers, including Strauss-Kahn.
The inquiry is to determine whether the complaints are admissible, the alleged offenses having been committed abroad – namely in Luxembourg, Monaco and Cyprus.
One of the complainants, Jean-François Ott, is former CEO of the Luxembourg real estate company Orco Property Group and a shareholder at LSK investment fund. The other is a former Macedonian banker who had invested in LSK bonds.
Ott’s lawyer Mathieu Croizet said he considered DSK’s response to be “premature” given the investigation into claims against him was still only preliminary.
Veil noted that Ott and his real estate company, Orco Property Group, had been sanctioned in 2012 by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal of Paris in 2014.
Strauss-Kahn became a board member of LSK in October 2013 and temporarily became the firm’s president before stepping down from the post one year later.
LSK declared bankruptcy in November 2014, a few weeks after founder Thierry Leyne committed suicide in Tel Aviv.
DSK had questioned his former partner, explaining that he had engaged in "a series of excessive borrowing."
On Friday, after France Inter radio and weekly supplement Le Parisien Magazine revealed that a formal investigation had begun, DSK’s lawyer Veil repeated that his client had himself been duped by Leyne.
In April, a source close to the case had revealed that LSK had accrued a liability to the tune of almost 100 million euros.