Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn charged with 'aggravated pimping' over hotel sex parties

Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be tried on charges of pimping

He was appealing the decision to charge him of the crime



But judges in Lille determined he should be tried by a criminal court



He was also accused of raping a hotel chambermaid in May 2011 in the US

Although the charges were dropped, the case dashed his hopes of winning the French presidency

Dominique Strauss-Kahn could face up to 10 years in prison after judges said he will stand trial for pimping.

The former International Monetary Fund chief thought he had been cleared of a string of vice charges centred on the Carlton Hotel in Lille, northern France.



Strauss-Kahn, 64, was told in June that prosecutors had dropped a charge of ‘aggravated pimping as part of an organised gang’ because of ‘insufficient evidence’.

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Former International Monetary Fund head Strauss-Kahn has been charged with pimping in Lille



But investigating magistrates have now decided he should face trial along with 12 other men.

The principal allegation is that Strauss-Kahn was knowingly using prostitutes paid for by two businessmen who were illegally using company funds to organise orgies in Europe and America.

Women selling themselves for sex is not illegal in France, but pimping is.

The offence of aggravated pimping in a vice ring carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine equivalent to £1.2 million .

Strauss-Kahn is now formally under ‘judicial control’, which means he cannot leave France and has to report to police regularly.

The so-called Carlton Affair saw Strauss-Kahn admit to attending orgies at hotels around the world, but he denied knowing that any of the women were prostitutes.



Separated: Dominique Strauss-Kahn with his wife Anne Sinclair, pictured outside Manhattan criminal court in 2011, at the time of the alleged offences

Strauss-Kahn said it had been impossible to tell what the women did for a living 'because they had their clothes off.'

Strauss-Kahn spent a night in prison during the enquiry, but is now likely to remain on bail until a trial takes place towards the end of 2014, or in 2015.

It is the latest in a string of legal problems for Strauss-Kahn, who once faced accusations that he tried to rape women in both New York and Paris.



In 2011 Strauss-Kahn was accused by Nafissatou Diallo, a New York chamber maid, of trying to rape her.

Accuser: Nafissatou Diallo maintained her claims the she was the victim of a 'violent, sadistic attack,' despite criminal charges being dropped

Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn proved that a sex act which took place was consensual, but Strauss Kahn was forced to step down from his 500,000-dollars a-year job at the IMF.



Diallo then sued Strauss-Kahn, but the two sides reached a financial settlement late last year, the details of which have never been disclosed.

Last October, a French prosecutor dropped a criminal investigation connecting Strauss-Kahn to a possible gang rape in Washington DC.



A Belgian woman withdrew her allegations, and said she would not press charges, despite initially insisting she had been attacked by Strauss Kahn.

Strauss-Kahn also faced allegations of attempted rape two years ago when Tristane Banon, a young Paris writer, said he had tried to rape her in 2003.

But prosecutors said the case could not be pursued because of a statute of limitations.

Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations and has since filed a counter claim in France, alleging slander.

Since his 20-year marriage to French journalist Anne Sinclair came to an end last year, Mr Strauss Kahn has been regularly seen with Moroccan-born TV press officer Myriam Aouffir, who is 20 years his junior.