Newsmaker

French businessman seeks new probe into Lagarde

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-31 09:54

PARIS -- A French businessman and anti-corruption campaigner has asked prosecutors to investigate the role of French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, the front runner to become the next IMF head, in a recent corporate deal.

Jean-Marie Kuhn accuses Lagarde of abusing her authority by allowing state bank Caisse des Depots to buy a 25 percent stake in GRTgaz, the gas grid of utility GDF Suez, earlier this year, according to a copy of his letter to a state prosecutor.

"We consider this pure fantasy," a finance ministry official told Reuters in reaction to Kuhn's allegation.

France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde attends a news conference in Brasilia May 29, 2011. Lagarde said on Monday that her candidacy to lead the International Monetary Fund is in the spirit of reforms undertaken by the previous IMF leadership.[Photo/Agencies]

Lagarde, who won respect for her role in handling the euro zone debt crisis, already faces an inquiry into her 2008 decision to settle a dispute between the state and businessman Bernard Tapie, a friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Lagarde has denied any misconduct in the Tapie affair.

The former top lawyer has quickly emerged as the leading candidate to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Sunday that she had won the support of leaders from the Group of Eight nations when they met on Thursday and Friday in France.

Kuhn has asked prosecutor Jean-Louis Nadal -- who is also investigating the Tapie case -- to seek a court investigation into Lagarde's role in GDF Suez's sale of the GRTgaz stake to Caisse des Depots.

He said the transaction used public funds for an investment that was neither strategic for the bank nor served a purpose for the general public.

"This is embezzlement of public funds of which Lagarde is an accomplice, committing in the process numerous abuses of authority and power," Kuhn said in his letter to Nadal, adding that his action was not politically motivated.