NEW YORK/PARIS (Reuters) - IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged on Sunday with trying to rape a New York hotel maid in a scandal that appeared to wreck his hopes of becoming France's next president. 
 
 The sexual assault charges throw the IMF into a leadership crisis just as it is trying to help ease an escalating euro zone debt crisis, and they turn France's presidential election campaign upside down when polls had made Strauss-Kahn a clear front runner. 
 
 The charismatic 62-year-old, who led the International Monetary Fund through the 2007-09 global financial meltdown and has been central in galvanizing Europe to tackle its debt woes, for long had the reputation of a womanizer. But the charges he faces are in another realm. 
 
 A maid, 32, said he emerged naked from the bathroom and sexually assaulted her inside his $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel in New York's Times Square on Saturday afternoon. He was there on private business, the IMF said. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn was expected to go before a state court later on Sunday. His lawyer said he will plead not guilty. 
 
 Police say he fled the hotel after the alleged assault and a few hours later they pulled him out of his first-class seat on an Air France plane 10 minutes before it was to take off for Paris. 
 
 He was charged with a criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape, moving him from luxurious hotel suite and a glittering public career to scandal and a bare holding cell in New York's tough Harlem neighborhood in the space of a few hours. 
 
 The contrast could barely have been more dramatic. At the Sofitel, Strauss-Kahn's suite had a conference room, living room, foyer, spacious marble bathroom and a bedroom with a sumptuous king-sized bed and feather and down duvet. 
 
 Police say Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity from the charges, which if proven could carry a prison sentence of 15-20 years. They have collected DNA evidence from the hotel suite, The New York Times reported. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn has hired New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman, a seasoned defense attorney famed for striking deals or winning not-guilty verdicts for pop stars and a football player. 
 
 The IMF chief's wife, well-known French television personality Anne Sinclair, jumped to her husband's defense. 
 
 "I do not believe for a single second the accusations leveled against my husband," she said in a statement.. 
 
 IMF CRISIS, ELECTION 'THUNDERBOLT' 
 
 The IMF tried to fill its leadership vacuum by naming its No. 2 official, John Lipsky, as acting managing director. But the charges against Strauss-Kahn are a huge embarrassment for an institution that oversees the global economic system and has authorized hundreds of billions of dollars of lending to troubled countries as well as playing a major role in the euro-zone debt crisis. 
 
 The allegations immediately threw France's presidential race wide open. 
 
 He had not yet declared his candidacy but Strauss-Kahn was widely expected to run for the Socialist Party and early opinion polls showed him with a big lead over the conservative incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is seeking a second term at the election next April. 
 
 "The news we received from New York last night struck like a thunderbolt," said Socialist leader Martine Aubry, appealing for party unity. 
 
 France's government as well as Strauss-Kahn's political allies and rivals called for caution and respect for the presumption of innocence, but his presidential ambitions appeared to be dead in the water unless the case against him quickly unravels and he is shown to be innocent. 
 
 "All this is completely astounding, immensely troubling and distressing. If the facts prove true ... it's something degrading for all women. It's terrible for the image of France," said Francois Bayrou, a centrist opponent. 
 
 Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her rival's presidential hopes had been crushed. 
 
 Christine Boutin, president of the Christian Democrat Party, suggested Strauss-Kahn may have been set up. 
 
 "I think it's very likely a trap was set for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and he fell into it," she told France's BFM television. "It's a political bomb for domestic politics." 
 
 French voters are famously tolerant of political leaders' extra-marital affairs but the allegations against Strauss-Kahn are entirely different, and much more serious. 
 
 If they are proven, Strauss-Kahn's fall from power in a scandal would be one of the most dramatic of any high-profile international figure in decades. 
 
 Many politicians have fallen after being caught in extra-marital affairs and others have survived them, including former presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton as well as former French President Francois Mitterrand. 
 
 But rarely have senior figures faced brutal assault charges like those filed against Strauss-Kahn. 
 
 With Strauss-Kahn in the dock, the IMF also now faces many questions of its own, because his character had been questioned before. 
 
 In 2008, Strauss-Kahn apologized for "an error of judgment" after an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subordinate. 
 
 The Fund's board of member countries warned him against further improper conduct, but cleared him of harassment and abuse of power and kept him in his job. It will now face new scrutiny over whether that response was too weak, especially as there have been persistent rumors about Strauss-Kahn making sexual advances to women. 
 
 PIVOTAL IN EUROPE'S DEBT WOES 
 
 An economics professor and former French finance minister, Strauss-Kahn took over the IMF in November 2007 for a five-year term, and won praise for helping galvanize leaders to inject billions of dollars into the world economy during the global financial crisis. 
 
 He introduced sweeping changes to ensure vulnerable countries swamped by the crisis had access to emergency loans, and others to give major emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil greater voting powers in the IMF. 
 
 Witty, multi-lingual, a skilled public speaker and sharp back-room negotiator, Strauss-Kahn also weighed into thornier issues by urging China to let its currency rise in a dispute with the United States. 
 
 A crisis of leadership at the Fund now will especially worry European nations given Strauss-Kahn's pivotal role in brokering bailouts for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal. 
 
 "The chances are the successor won't be a European, and will want to rebalance the IMF's priorities away from its massive commitment in Europe," said Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Bruegel economic think-tank. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and join euro zone finance ministers on Monday to discuss the bloc's debt crisis and how to handle Greece, which is struggling to meet the terms of a 110 billion euro European Union/IMF bailout last year. 
 
 "This might definitely cause some delays in the short term," a Greek official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn's lawyers moved quickly to cast doubts on the allegations against him. 
 
 "We must wait until things settle and see if it's true or a provocation," said one of his France-based lawyers, Leon Lef Forster. "We must be especially careful not to get into a media circus and we must wait until things are clear." 
 
 Brafman, his U.S. lawyer, previously defended pop star Michael Jackson against child molestation charges as well as other celebrities in trouble. 
 
 The maid who accused Strauss-Kahn told police he attacked her when she went in to clean his suite. 
 
 "She told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her, according to her account," New York police spokesman Paul Browne said. 
 
 "She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room." 
 
 The woman, who has not been named, was treated in hospital for minor injuries, Browne said. She has worked at the hotel for three years and the property's manager said on Sunday she has been a "completely satisfactory" employee in her work and her behavior. 
 
 Under New York state law, attempted rape and criminal sexual act both carry a potential sentence of 15-20 years. Unlawful imprisonment carries a potential sentence of three to five years. ||||| A member of the NYPD crime scene unit enters the Sofitel hotel in New York, Saturday, May 14, 2011. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leader of the International Monetary Fund and a possible candidate for president... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dominique Strauss-Kahn's reputation with women earned him the nickname "the great seducer," and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country. 
 
 Police said the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup. Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up. 
 
 The IMF, which plays a key role in efforts to control the European debt crisis, named an acting leader and said it remains "fully functioning and operational" despite Saturday's arrest of its managing director. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told The Associated Press that his client will plead not guilty. He and another lawyer went in and out of the Harlem police precinct where Strauss-Kahn was being held early Sunday afternoon, and declined to answer reporters' questions until the arraignment, which was expected later Sunday. 
 
 "He denies all the charges against him," Brafman said. "And that's all I can really say right now." 
 
 Brafman is one of the city's most high-profile defense attorneys. His clients have included mobsters and such celebrities as Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and ex-New York Giants star Plaxico Burress. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested less than four hours after the alleged assault, plucked from first class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport. 
 
 The white-haired, well-dressed, thrice-married father of four was alone when he checked into the luxury Sofitel hotel, not far from Manhattan's Times Square, on Friday afternoon, police said. It wasn't clear why he was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington, and he had been due in Germany on Sunday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. 
 
 The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered his spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied. Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne said. 
 
 The woman told police she fought him off, but then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived moments later. He left his cellphone behind. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said. 
 
 The NYPD discovered he was at JFK and contacted officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. Port Authority police officers arrested him. 
 
 The maid was taken by police to a hospital and was treated for minor injuries. Stacy Royal, a spokeswoman for Sofitel, said the hotel's staff was cooperating in the investigation and that the maid "has been a satisfactory employee of the hotel for the past three years." 
 
 Strauss-Kahn was arrested on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. Authorities were looking for any forensic evidence and DNA. 
 
 His wife, Anne Sinclair, defended him in a statement to French news agency AFP. 
 
 "I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband. I have no doubt his innocence will be established," said Sinclair, a New York-born journalist who hosted a popular weekly TV news broadcast in France in the 1980s. 
 
 A member of France's Socialist party, Strauss-Kahn was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose political fortunes have been flagging. 
 
 "At the top of the polls," Strauss-Kahn tweeted proudly in French last December, linking an article that showed him ahead in opinion polls when French voters were asked whom they would choose in a primary. At a soccer game in a Washington suburb last September, he, his wife and others were seen wearing T-shirts that read, "Yes we Kahn," a play on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, "Yes we can." 
 
 Strauss-Kahn also noted that he trailed only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on a list of 100 "global thinkers" compiled last November by Foreign Policy magazine. Strauss-Kahn was cited for his "steely vision at a moment of crisis" _ for convincing Germany to help bail out Greece's debt-laden government, and for helping to put the brakes on defaults in Hungary, Pakistan and Ukraine. 
 
 The arrest could throw the long-divided Socialists back into disarray about who they could present as Sarkozy's opponent. Even some of his adversaries were stunned. 
 
 "It's totally hallucinating. If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life," said Dominique Paille, a political rival to Strauss-Kahn on the center right, on BFM television. Still, he urged, "I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair." 
 
 Candidates need to announce their intentions this summer to run in fall primary elections. 
 
 "If he's cleared, he could return _ but if he is let off only after four or five months, he won't be able to run" because the campaign will be too far along, said Jerome Fourquet of the IFOP polling agency. 
 
 "I think his political career is over," Philippe Martinat, who wrote a book called "DSK-Sarkozy: The Duel," told The Associated Press. "Behind him he has other affairs ... I don't see very well how he can pick himself back up." 
 
 Strauss-Kahn is known as DSK in France, but media there also have dubbed him "the great seducer." His reputation as a charmer of women has not hurt his career in France, where politicians' private lives traditionally come under less scrutiny than in the United States. 
 
 In 2008, Strauss-Kahn was briefly investigated over whether he had an improper relationship with a subordinate female employee. The IMF board found that the relationship was consensual, but called his actions "regrettable" and said they "reflected a serious error of judgment." 
 
 Strauss-Kahn issued an apology, writing in an email to IMF staff that he showed poor judgment but didn't abuse his position. 
 
 The sexual assault allegations come amid French media reports about Strauss-Kahn's lifestyle, including luxury cars and suits, that some have dubbed a smear campaign. Some French raised suspicions about the sexual assault case as well. 
 
 "Perhaps this affair will unravel very quickly, if we learn that there is in the end no serious charge and that what was said by this woman was not true, and we all wish for this," former Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande said on Canal-Plus television. "To commit an act of such seriousness, this does not resemble the man I know." 
 
 At La Rotonde, a cafe on Paris' Left Bank, psychiatrist Sylvie Etienne said Strauss-Kahn's alleged behavior is very sad because he had had a "great chance" of becoming president. Her daughter, high school literature teacher Stephanie Plou, said it was probably for the best. 
 
 "This had to come out one day. Better now than when he's president," she said. 
 
 A former economics professor, Strauss-Kahn served as French industry minister and finance minister in the 1990s, and is credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by taming its deficit. 
 
 He took over as head of the IMF in November 2007. The 187-nation lending agency provides help in the form of emergency loans for countries facing severe financial problems. 
 
 Sarkozy, who did not comment publicly Sunday, had championed Strauss-Kahn to run the IMF. Political strategists saw it as a way for Sarkozy to get a potential challenger far from the French limelight. 
 
 Caroline Atkinson, an IMF spokeswoman, issued a statement Sunday that said the agency would have no comment on the New York case. She referred all inquiries to Strauss-Kahn's personal lawyer and said the "IMF remains fully functioning and operational." 
 
 Another IMF spokesman, William Murray, said the fund's executive board would be briefed on developments related to Strauss-Kahn on Sunday, and John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, would lead the organization in an acting capacity in Strauss-Kahn's absence. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn was supposed to be meeting in Berlin on Sunday with Merkel about increasing aid to Greece, and then join EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. The IMF is responsible for one-third of Greece's existing loan package, and his expected presence at these meetings underlined the gravity of the Greek crisis. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Charlton reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Cristian Salazar and Verena Dobnik in New York, Martin Crutsinger in Washington and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.
– IMF chief/would-be French presidential contender Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and unlawful imprisonment today following yesterday's alleged attack on a maid in the $3,000-a-night NYC hotel suite Strauss-Kahn had been staying in. An NYPD rep says the 32-year-old maid "told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom, and began to sexually assault her." "She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room," said the rep. Strauss-Kahn "will plead not guilty," one of his lawyers told Reuters. Strauss-Kahn—who has polled ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy—is finished, says presidential rival Marine Le Pen: "The case and the charges ... mark the end of his campaign and pre-campaign for the presidency and will most likely prompt the IMF to ask him to leave his post." Click to read more about Strauss-Kahn.