Christine Lagarde, the new director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of June, ends up under investigation in France.
It is an old story, linked to the controversial entrepreneur (and actor) Bernard Tapie. It was Lagarde herself, as Minister of the Economy, who chose to go to an arbitral tribunal (instead of resorting to traditional justice) to find a solution to a dispute between Tapie and the former public bank, Crédit Lyonnais. This concerns the sale in 1993-94 of the Adidas group, then owned by the entrepreneur. The transfer would have been made at a lower value than the actual value. Well, in 2008 the arbitral tribunal decided to award Tapie compensation of 285 million euros, raising numerous controversies in the political world (the entrepreneur, once close to the socialists, is now a follower of Nicolas Sarkozy). The French judiciary has now decided to open an investigation to see more clearly. And to understand if there are real responsibilities of Lagarde.
