IMF to give jailed former chief $250,000
Friday May 20, 2011
New York A court hearing began Friday to hash out the final details concerning the release on bail of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his post this week as the head of the International Monetary Fund after accusations of sexual assault.
As soon as the hearing got under way, defense lawyer William Taylor and Assistant District Attorney John McConnell went into the chambers of New York State Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus.
Earlier Friday, a court officer said the defense team was working on fine tuning the language of the bail order to the satisfaction of the prosecution in order to meet bail conditions.
The defense team was then planning to take proof of the $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond to the judge, the court officer said.
Once the judge has signed it, it would go to the clerk to sign.
Meanwhile, the IMF said Friday that Strauss-Kahn will receive a $250,000 separation payment and a "modest annual pension" thereafter.
We don't disclose pension payments," said IMF spokesman William Murray. "But it is well below the separation payment figure."
Strauss-Kahn was in the fourth year of a five-year term with the global financial institution and was paid $441,980 in 2010, according to the most recent annual report. He also got $79,000 and first-class travel for him and his family while he was on company business.
He was expected to be released from Rikers Island jail Friday after being granted bail Thursday on charges related to the alleged assault of a maid in a New York hotel last Saturday, his lawyer said.
The next court appearance is set for June 6.
Obus granted the bail on condition that, in addition to posting $1 million in cash and a $5 million bond, Strauss-Kahn surrender his travel documents and submit to home detention.
The decision came shortly after his indictment on seven criminal charges was announced. They are: two counts of criminal sexual act; two counts of sexual abuse; and one count each of attempt to commit rape, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.
In the charge of criminal sexual act in the first degree, Strauss-Kahn is accused of having "engaged in oral sexual conduct with an individual ... by forcible compulsion," the indictment says.
"Under American law, these are extremely serious charges," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance told reporters outside the courtroom. "The defendant was indicted on all the charges presented to the grand jury."
Strauss-Kahn proclaimed his innocence in a resignation letter to the IMF executive board late Wednesday.
"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he said.
A criminal court judge denied him bail Monday, saying his attempt to leave the country after the alleged incident made him a flight risk.
His lawyer argued Thursday that he had been scheduled to leave New York and fly to Paris on Saturday using a ticket he had bought on May 11, and that he was not fleeing anything.
Strauss-Kahn will live with his wife in an apartment in Manhattan after his release, Taylor said.
The alleged victim, a 32-year-old Guinean maid for the Sofitel hotel, testified before the grand jury Wednesday, according to her attorney.
Prosecutors allege that a naked Strauss-Kahn, 62, chased the housekeeping employee through his suite and sexually assaulted her.But defense attorney Benjamin Brafman disputed the allegation, saying "forensic evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible account, and we believe there is a very, very defensible case."CNN's Susan Candiotti, Adam Reiss and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.
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