out her duties."

The IMF is in charge of maintaining financial stability around the world. Lagarde has played a pivotal role in IMF-backed rescues of countries on the brink of collapse, including Greece and Ukraine.

Lagarde had been accused of giving preferential treatment to businessman-turned-politician Bernard Tapie as he pursued a legal challenge against the French government. At the time, Lagarde was the French economy minister.

Tapie eventually won his case and was awarded €293 million ($306 million), plus interest. Lagarde was found to be negligent for not challenging the award of such a large sum of taxpayers' money.

She was not in court for the verdict. Her lawyer said she was in Washington for work.

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Lagarde is the third IMF managing directorin a row to face legal proceedings. Her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned from the IMF in 2011 after sexual assault charges were brought in the U.S. (They were subsequently dropped.)

And Rodrigo Rato, who preceded him in the job, is currently on trial on corruption charges in Spain.

Unraveling the case

The case has its roots in the early 1990s when Tapie joined the French government and sold his stake in Adidas (ADDYY) to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest.

He instructed Credit Lyonnais to handle the sale for him. The bank sold Adidas for just under €318 million ($332 million) the following year to a group of buyers, including a subsidiary of Credit Lyonnais. A year later, Adidas was sold again, this time for €533 million, netting the bank a