Dominique Strauss-Kahn faces trial on pimping charges

The disgraced former banker is facing charges, along with 13 others, relating to an alleged prostitution ring based at the Carlton hotel in Lille. Prosecutors allege that he and several other high-profile French men held sex parties around the world, using the hotel as their base.

Mr Strauss-Kahn could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years in jail, and a 1.5m euro fine if he is found guilty. The 64 year old has admitted that he attended sex parties – or “libertine soirees”, as his lawyer called them – but claims he did not know that some of the women there were paid prostitutes.

Investigators first became aware of his links to the parties after his initials, DSK, were seen on hotel and plane ticket bills, which had been paid for by the construction company Eiffage.

One of his lawyers, Henri Leclerc, dismissed the latest allegations. “We’re not in the realm of law, we’re in ideology. We’re sending someone to court for nothing”, he said.

Mr Strauss-Kahn had been attempting something of a comeback in public life, after keeping a low profile for months. He spoke in the French parliament in June at an inquiry into the role of banks and financiers in tax evasion, mocking President Hollande in his remarks.

He also showed up at the Cannes film festival, arm in arm with his new girlfriend, television press officer Myriam L’Aouffir, whose husband did not seem at all happy about the liaison.

String of allegations

The pimping charge is just the latest in a series of sexual allegations agains the ex IMF chief, who has been dogged by scandal. In 2011, he was on the verge of becoming the socialist candidate for the French presidency when he was accused of rape in New York.

He was held in the city’s notorious Ryker Island jail while the allegations by hotel chambermaid Nafissatu Diallo were investigated: Strauss-Kahn insisted the pair had had consensual sex, and eventually an out of court settlement was agreed, reportedly worth almost £1m.

A French investigation into a possible gang rape in Washington DC was dropped, while a Belgian woman who claimed he had attacked her withdrew her allegations.

A Parisian writer, Tristane Banon, claimed that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003, although the statute of limitations meant there could be no prosecution. He vigerously denied the allegation and launched his own counter-claim of slander.

Yet more allegations emerged from the past, this time involving an Italian journalist who claims he sexually assaulted her at the World Economic Forum in Davos, when he was the French finance minister in the 1990s.

Despite it all, however, Mr Strauss-Kahn has never been convicted of any crime. Under the aegis of his consulting firm, he has launched a new career as an international conference speaker.

A friend told Le Parisien newspaper that now his political career was behind him, “he’s having fun in what he does. He’s free and isn’t answerable to anyone”.

Just the matter of another serious court case to get through first.