Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Nafissitou Diallo, the New York hotel house keeper who accused him of sexually assaulting her last year, will settle out of court for $6 million, French media reports said on Friday.
The legal teams on both sides will not comment but the two largest French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro are reporting Strauss-Kahn and Diallo are expected to meet on December 7 to "sign a financial agreement ending the civil proceedings." The Associated Press and The New York Times also reported Strauss-Kahn and Diallo had reached a deal on Thursday but they did not disclose any information of a cash settlement.
The alleged settlement comes eighteen months after Diallo told police Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her when she came to clean his 28th-floor suite at the Sofitel hotel. Days later a grand jury indicted Strauss-Kahn on charges including attempted rape, sexual abuse, criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.
But the case fell apart in the weeks after as prosecutors began to have concerns about the housekeeper’s credibility.
Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, was dissected by the press. The New York Times reported she lied about her immigration status and her finances. The NY Post published a story that said everything short of, "Ooooh, she gave that man AIDS!"
In it, they cite the fact that she had three different accounts of what she did immediately after the sexual encounter; that she lied about her earnings to retain lower-income housing; and that she had questionable financial dealings with an incarcerated man she called her fiance.
A year later Strauss-Kahn would go on to file a $1 million counter-claim against Diallo for the loss of his job, defamation and false imprisonment. But that was followed by a motion for dismissal by Strauss-Kahn week later.
And now Le Monde is reporting details of the alleged $6 million settlement between Strauss-Kahn and Diallo:
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who went himself to New York several times in recent months, told several of his relatives that the main elements of the agreement had come to be found at the end of the summer . According to his confidences, he should pay $ 6 million (4.64 million euros) to that accuses him of sexual assault.
To his friends, he also said he did not have the money personally. Despite some lectures in private universities or at the invitation of major banks, and despite his consulting business, including Morocco , Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 63, has in fact no income or assets sufficient.
It should therefore, as he told his family, getting a bank loan of $ 3 million. His wife Anne Sinclair , are living separate since this summer, should also lend the remaining $ 3 million.
Le Monde interviewed Christopher Mesnooh, a member of the Bars in both Paris and New York, who said the $6 million dollar figure isn’t out of the question. "Given the stakes of this case, the media, the social position of Mr. Strauss-Kahn and the need for him to finish with this story, such a sum is not shocking. Transaction should logically located in millions of dollars."