The French Court of Cassation has decided that the director general of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, will go to trial before the Court of Justice of the Republic (special court that judges ministers for crimes committed during their mandate) to respond to the charges negligence of a public official for his involvement in the so-called "Tapie" arbitration.
The then Economy Minister Lagarde had decided not to entrust the resolution of an existing dispute between the Credit Lyonnaise bank and the powerful tycoon Bernard Tapie to ordinary justice, leaving the judgment to arbitration.
According to the transalpine magistrates, the current number one of the IMF had acted in order to favor the entrepreneur, succumbing to the pressures coming from the then president Sarkozy, very close to Tapie.
The arbitration had proved the latter right, allowing him to collect even 403 million euros in compensation for an alleged damage suffered in 1993, when the bank bought Adidas. Subsequently, the Court of Appeals ordered Tapie to return the sum received.
The International Monetary Fund, through a note, "continued to express its confidence in the ability of the general manager to effectively carry out his duties".
