IMF slams the lid on chief’s affair scandal

Washington, October 26:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), did not abuse his authority in an extramarital affair he had with a subordinate and the fund’s board said yesterday it planned to continue with him at the helm.

The 24-member IMF executive board met on Saturday to review an investigation into the matter and said in a statement it had “concluded that there was no harassment, favoritism, or any other abuse of authority by the managing director.”

The investigation concerned his alleged relationship with Hungarian-raised Piroska Nagy, who was a senior official in the IMF’s Africa department and now works for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.

The board said that “the incident was regrettable and that it reflected a serious error of judgment on the part” of Strauss-Kahn, but it also stressed that it was ready to move on.