Strauss-Kahn, New York Hotel Maid To Settle
A settlement agreement has been reached between former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a hotel maid who accused him of rape.
However, Strauss-Kahn is still awaiting a ruling on whether he is linked to pimping in a French prostitution ring.
A person familiar with the case said Thursday that lawyers for Strauss-Kahn and the maid, Nafissastou Diallo, made the currently unsigned agreement within recent days with Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon.
A separate agreement was also made to end another lawsuit filed by Diallo against the New York Post. A court date is expected next week, but it hasn’t been set yet, the source said.
If the deal includes a confidentiality agreement, Strauss-Kahn and Diallo may not be able to speak publicly about the May 2011 encounter which Diallo called a “sudden attack” and Strauss-Kahn called a consensual “moral failing.”
Dominique Stauss-Kahn will pay Nafissatou Diallo $6 million, half of which will be paid from a bank loan. The other half will be borrowed from his wife, Anne Sinclair. The couple has separated, but Sinclair paid Strauss-Kahn’s bail in New York, as well as the cost of renting a house in lower Manhattan for $50,000 a month.
Sinclair, a journalist and heiress, has stood by Strauss-Kahn throughout the allegations against him.
Strauss-Kahn and Diallo will meet December 7 in McKeon’s chambers to sign the settlement agreement.
Strauss-Kahn initially said he had diplomatic immunity in the case, but this argument was turned down by a judge in May. His lawyer’s have since asked McKeon to throw out part of Diallo’s claim for other legal reasons.