IMF's Strauss-Kahn submits resignation

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned the post late Wednesday, saying he wanted to devote his time to defending himself against charges that he sexually assaulted a maid at a New York hotel.

Strauss-Kahn is being held without bail at New York's Rikers Island prison. Police arrested him Saturday after he boarded an Air France flight at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. He will appear in court on Friday.

"I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," Strauss-Kahn wrote in a formal letter of resignation to the executive board of the IMF. "I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially — especially — I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence."

Strauss-Kahn, a French economist, lawyer and politician who was expected to run for president of France in the next election, has served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2007. He is credited with raising the organization's profile, instilling professional oversight and rooting out favoritism at the organization, which aids countries struggling with debt.

In 2008, the IMF board hired an outside legal firm to investigate whether Strauss-Kahn, who is married to French journalist Anne Sinclair, violated his contract and the fund's policies when he had a month-long affair with a subordinate. The board cleared him of wrongdoing.

"It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF," Strauss-Kahn wrote. "I think at this time first of my wife — whom I love more than anything — of my children, of my family, of my friends. I think also of my colleagues at the Fund; together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more."

IMF Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky, a former vice chairman of JPMorgan, has served as acting managing director since Strauss-Kahn's arrest.