Romania's Social Democratic Party (PSD) has comfortably won the parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results, a year after a major anti-corruption drive forced the left-leaning party from power.

Election authorities said on Monday that with 99 percent of the votes from Sunday's elections counted, the PSD held about 46 percent.

PSD's main rival, the centre-right National Liberal Party, came a distant second with about 20 percent of vote.

The Save Romania Union, a new party that ran on an anti-corruption ticket, finished third with 9 percent, allowing it to enter parliament.

"There should be no doubt who won the elections. Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians," PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said about the results.

Dragnea resigned as a minister last May after his conviction in a case involving voter fraud. He is serving a two-year suspended sentence and is barred from holding office. He has denied the charges.

The PSD leader said his party will start talks to form a parliamentary majority with longtime ally the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which took about 6 percent of the vote.

The election follows a year of a technocrat government in Romania, the EU's fastest-growing economy but also one of its poorest, put in place after massive street protests brought down the previous PSD-led government.

Triggered by a deadly fire in the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest which lacked emergency exits and other safety measures, the protests called for sweeping change in Romania to address chronically inept public administration and corruption.

Low turnout

However, observers say many of the younger voters who took to the streets then failed to vote on Sunday, underscoring a lack of belief that reforms can take root. Turnout was just 39.5 percent in the polls.

The PSD's electorate traditionally stems from older, poorer Romanians, eager to hear the party's message which centres on public-sector wage hikes, tax cuts and higher pensions.

Both PSD and ALDE politicians have accused anti-corruption prosecutors of being politically motivated in their investigations. Romanian prosecutors have been praised by EU officials various times for their efforts against corruption.

During its previous years in government, between 2012 and 2015, the PSD reversed austerity policies put in place after a 2008 property crash by cutting taxes and raising the minimum wage and public-sector pay.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, now expects Romania's deficit to quadruple from 0.8 percent of economic output in 2015 to 3.2 percent in 2017 under European accounting terms.</s>PARIS — Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, went on trial in Paris on Monday, facing criminal charges that when she was France’s finance minister, her negligence resulted in the misuse of hundreds of millions of euros in public money.

The trial caps a long-running legal drama that has overshadowed her role at the agency, captivated and irritated the French public, and exposed ties between powerful politicians and the wealthy. It has also compelled Ms. Lagarde to defend herself repeatedly since taking over at the I.M.F. in 2011, when another former French finance minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned after being accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York City hotel.

Ms. Lagarde is accused of “negligence by a person in a position of public authority” in overseeing a politically charged arbitration case in 2007. In the case, Bernard Tapie, a flamboyant French tycoon close to Nicolas Sarkozy, then France’s president, was awarded more than 400 million euros, or $430 million, to settle a dispute with the partly state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais.

Her lawyer appealed for a postponement, but the court — which is hearing the case in the same courtroom where the French queen Marie-Antoinette was tried — denied the request. The trial is scheduled to run through Dec. 20 but could conclude earlier.</s>Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde stands near her lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve (L) before the start of her trial about a state payout in 2008 to a French businessman, at the courts in Paris, France, December 12, 2016. © Charles Platiau / Reuters

International Monetary Fund head, Christine Lagarde, has appeared before court on Monday in Paris, facing negligence charges over allowing a handout of $425 billion to a French tycoon, while being the country’s finance minister in 2008.

Lagarde was described by AP as being “poised and serious” as she went on trial at the Court of Justice of the Republic, intended for proceedings against government ministers.

She took notes as judge summed up the case which was launched back in 2011, a month after Lagarde became the IMF president.

The 60-year-old had to declare her identity, age, address, professional activity and salary in court and confirmed that she was earning $450,000 a year.

According to Lagarde, she is taking time off her day job at the International Monetary Fund to face trial.

Her lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, asked for a delay in the proceedings, stating that it is unreasonable for Lagarde to face trial when a separate investigation in the broader case is still under way.

If the lawyer’s appeal is not satisfied by the judge the trial against the IMF chief is due to conclude on December 20.

Lagarde, who faces up to a year in prison if found guilty, denies any wrongdoing.

“Negligence is a non-intentional offense. I think we are all a bit negligent sometimes in our life. I have done my job as well as I could, within the limits of what I knew,” she told France 2 television on Sunday.

Back in 2008, Lagarde as a French finance minister approved a handout of 403 million euro ($425 million) to tycoon, Bernard Tapie, in an arbitration deal in 2008 over the sale of Adidas sportswear maker.

The investigation, which was launched due to an unusually high award, came to a conclusion that the whole affair was rigged in favor of Tapie, who had connections in the highest circles of French society, including then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Lagarde is accused of serious negligence “not only from a questionable carelessness and precipitation, but also from a conjunction of faults which, by their nature, number and seriousness, exceed the level of mere negligence,” the judges wrote after the investigation concluded.

Lawyer Maisonneuve told Europe-1 radio that Lagarde as a government minister was simply following instructions from her administration, having no time to read all 15 years of legal files in the Adidas case.

In an ongoing separate criminal investigation into the case, Tapie and several other high-ranked players, including current Orange CEO, Stephane Richard, were given criminal charges of gang-related fraud.

The trial and a potential prison term may put Lagarde’s future as IMF chief in question. Her predecessor, another Frenchman, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was forced to resign in 2011 amid allegations of sexual assault.</s>By LK Hewlett WINN From Caribbean News Now

PARIS, France (WINN) — The first female managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, went on trial on Monday in a French court for alleged misuse of public funds.

The charge of negligence stems from a €425 million payment to a French businessman in a 2008 lawsuit settlement against the state when she was France’s finance minister.

Lagarde was elected to the top post in the IMF in 2011 after then managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned in the face of a sex scandal.

French media has quoted Lagarde as saying she is confident she will be vindicated. She denies acting improperly by authorizing the hefty payout.

According to French 2 Television, the IMF chief said, “Negligence is a non-intentional offence. I think we are all a bit negligent sometimes in our life.”

French radio station Europe 1 reported on Monday that Lagarde’s attorney, Patrick Maisonneuve, would seek a postponement when the proceedings open on the basis that it doesn’t make sense for Lagarde to go on trial while a separate investigation in the case is still underway.

If found guilty, Lagarde could be sentenced to up to one year’s imprisonment.

While the IMF has said its executive board retains confidence in Lagarde’s ability to lead the international organization, the outcome of the matter could have serious implications for the IMF’s leadership.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-IMF-chief-Lagarde-goes-on-trial-32841.html</s>IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde goes on trial over her handling of a dispute with Bernard Tapie, a former government minister (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Paris (AFP) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde goes on trial in France on Monday over a massive state payout to a flamboyant tycoon when she was finance minister in a case that risks tarnishing her stellar career.

Lagarde denies the charges of negligence, arguing she was acting "in the state's interest" in making the payment to Bernard Tapie, the former owner of sportswear giant Adidas and Olympique Marseille football club.

If found guilty, Lagarde could receive a one-year prison sentence and a 15,000 euro ($15,900) fine.

Whatever the outcome, the case risks damaging the image of 60-year-old Lagarde, a former corporate lawyer who progressed through the finance ministry to her current role as one of the world's most powerful women.

The case also threatens the credibility of the International Monetary Fund, whose last three managing directors have faced trial.

Lagarde, who was named to a second term in February this year, has received the full backing of the IMF over the case.

She will be tried by the Court of Justice of the Republic, a tribunal that hears cases against ministers accused of wrongdoing in the discharge of their duties.

The accusations stem from Lagarde's handling of a dispute with Tapie, a former government minister who claimed a state bank defrauded him in its sale of Adidas.

Tapie owned the firm between 1990 and 1993 but lost control of it after he went bankrupt. He also owned Marseille when they won the 1993 European Cup, the forerunner of the Champions League, but they were later embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.

On becoming finance minister in 2007 under the newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy, Lagarde ordered that Tapie's long-running battle with the state be resolved by arbitration.

The decision was hugely costly, with Tapie initially walking away with a staggering 404 million euros ($427 million) in compensation in 2008. After a lengthy court battle, he has since been ordered to repay the money.

Investigators suspect the arbitration process was rigged in favour of Tapie, who had supported Sarkozy in his 2007 election campaign.

Lagarde, who served as finance minister until 2011, has always insisted she acted in France's best interests.

Although she is not accused of personally profiting from the payment, she has been criticised for failing to challenge the award.

The prosecution says that through her actions, Lagarde "deprived the state of a chance to avoid this money being misused".

Others face fraud charges over the affair, including 73-year-old Tapie, his lawyer, one of the arbitrators, Lagarde's former chief of staff in the finance ministry and the current head of the telecom group Orange, Stephane Richard.

She will be judged by a panel of three judges and 12 lawmakers selected from France's upper and lower houses of parliament.

Lagarde will be defended by a team of lawyers led by Patrick Maisonneuve, a star of the French legal world.

Lagarde succeeded her disgraced compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF managing director after he resigned to fight sexual assault charges.

Another former IMF head, Spaniard Rodrigo Rato, is currently standing trial for misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia.

The IMF plays a key role in the global financial system, acting as a lender of last resort to countries in financial difficulties. It also monitors financial markets and acts as an influential policy advisor to governments.

Lagarde has been a key player in bailout negotiations for Greece and has also worked to reform the US- and Europe-dominated institution to reflect China's growing global leverage.

She has fashioned herself as a model for talented women fighting male dominance in the IMF and other large organisations and has previously been touted as a possible French presidential contender although she denies any such ambitions.</s>PARIS (AP) — Christine Lagarde is taking time off her day job solving the world’s financial crises to face trial Monday, accused of negligence after the French state handed $425 million to a tycoon close to the president in 2008.

The well-respected, silver-haired head of the International Monetary Fund denies wrongdoing in the case, which dates to her time in the French government when she was economy and finance minister.

The trial is due to last until Dec. 20. Lagarde, 60, faces up to a year in prison and a 15,000-euro ($16,000) fine if convicted of negligence. The judges are expected to return a verdict in the wake of the last hearing but they can also announce a ruling at a later date.

Lagarde’s upcoming trial and possible conviction may raise concern about her ability to remain IMF boss. The Washington-based institution’s credibility was already shaken when her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a French citizen, was forced to resign amid sexual assault allegations in 2011.

The IMF’s board has so far supported Lagarde at all stages of the French legal proceedings, which began the month after her appointment in July 2011.

Lagarde, the first woman to become finance minister of a Group of Eight country and to be appointed IMF chief, is being tried for her role in a 2008 arbitration ruling that handed 403 million euros ($425 million) to a French business magnate, Bernard Tapie, an ally of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tapie, a flamboyant tycoon and former TV star, had sued French bank Credit Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas in the mid-1990s.

When Lagarde became finance minister in 2007, the lengthy legal battle between Tapie and the public bank was still unresolved, and she ordered to settle it through an unusual private arbitration panel, instead of regular courts, against the advice of her own services.

The choice of arbitration proved disastrous for the state by leading to the massive payout to Tapie from public funds. The amount of the award prompted indignation in France.

Investigating judges say Lagarde committed a series of serious errors when she made the arbitration choice and also, later on, when she refused to challenge the deal, suggesting she may have been influenced by the political connections between Tapie and Sarkozy, according to court documents.

“Ms. Lagarde’s behavior proceeds not only from a questionable carelessness and precipitation, but also from a conjunction of faults which, by their nature, number and seriousness, exceed the level of mere negligence,” the judges wrote at the end of their investigation.

Soon after the arbitration deal was notified, investigators suspected that the whole process was rigged in favor of the magnate.

In 2013, Tapie, his lawyer, one of the arbitrators and Lagarde’s chief of staff at the ministry, Stephane Richard, now the CEO of the telecom company Orange, were charged with gang-related fraud, and Lagarde’s Paris home was searched by police. Tapie later got another charge of misappropriation of funds. In 2015, a court quashed the arbitration deal, and then ordered Tapie to pay the money back. Last June, the top French court ruled the arbitration was fraudulent.

On Monday, Lagarde is due to appear in the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body that tries government ministers for alleged wrongdoing while in office. The court is made up of three professional magistrates from the highest French court, including its president, and 12 members of Parliament, from opposition and majority parties.

One of Lagarde’s lawyers, Patrick Maisonneuve, has argued his client can’t be tried until criminal courts have ruled in the cases of Tapie and other suspects. He reportedly said he will ask the court on Monday to postpone the trial on those grounds.

Christopher Mesnooh, legal analyst and lawyer with the Paris, New York and Washington bars, said the whole Tapie case is “highly political” and that French citizens have a “strong feeling about it” because “there is a question of public money involved.”

“(Lagarde) had a high government position when the decision was made to pursue the arbitration and then not to appeal the award,” he told The Associated Press.</s>IMF chief Christine Lagarde goes on trial in France on Monday over a massive state payout to a flamboyant tycoon when she was finance minister in a case that risks tarnishing her stellar career.

Lagarde denies the charges of negligence, arguing she was acting "in the state's interest" in making the payment to Bernard Tapie, the former owner of sportswear giant Adidas and the Olympique Marseille football club.

Whatever the outcome, the case risks damaging the image of 60-year-old Lagarde, a former corporate lawyer who progressed through the finance ministry to her current role as one of the world's most powerful women.

The case also threatens the credibility of the International Monetary Fund, as Lagarde is the third IMF chief to face trial.

The IMF has given its full backing to Lagarde, who was named to a second term in February this year, over the case.

She will be tried by the Court of Justice of the Republic, a tribunal that hears cases against ministers accused of wrongdoing in the discharge of their duties.

In a documentary aired on French television late Sunday, Lagarde said she was "confident and determined" ahead of the trial.

"I tried to do my work the best I could within the limits of what I knew," she told France 2.

"Negligence is an unintentional offence. I think all of us have been a little bit negligent at some stage of our lives," added Lagarde.

The accusations stem from Lagarde's handling of a dispute with Tapie, a former government minister who claimed a state bank had defrauded him in its sale of Adidas.

Tapie, now 73, owned the firm between 1990 and 1993 but lost control of it when he went bankrupt.

He sold it to state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais for 315.5 million euros in February 1993. The bank sold it again the year after at 701 million euros, leading Tapie to claim he had been cheated.</s>PARIS: IMF chief Christine Lagarde goes on trial in France on Monday over a massive state payout to a flamboyant tycoon when she was finance minister in a case that risks tarnishing her stellar career.

Lagarde denies the charges of negligence, arguing she was acting “in the state’s interest” in making the payment to Bernard Tapie, the former owner of sportswear giant Adidas and the Olympique Marseille football club.

If found guilty, Lagarde could receive a one-year prison sentence and a 15,000 euro ($15,900) fine.

Whatever the outcome, the case risks damaging the image of 60-year-old Lagarde, a former corporate lawyer who progressed through the finance ministry to her current role as one of the world’s most powerful women.

The case also threatens the credibility of the International Monetary Fund, as Lagarde is the third IMF chief to face trial.

The IMF has given its full backing to Lagarde, who was named to a second term in February this year, over the case.

She will be tried by the Court of Justice of the Republic, a tribunal that hears cases against ministers accused of wrongdoing in the discharge of their duties.

The accusations stem from Lagarde’s handling of a dispute with Tapie, a former government minister who claimed a state bank had defrauded him in its sale of Adidas.

Tapie, now 73, owned the firm between 1990 and 1993 but lost control of it after he went bankrupt. He also owned Marseille when they won the 1993 European Cup, the forerunner of the Champions League, but they were later embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.

Lagarde, upon becoming finance minister in 2007 under the newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy, ordered that Tapie’s long-running battle with the state be resolved by arbitration.

The decision was hugely costly, with Tapie initially walking away with a staggering 404 million euros ($427 million) in compensation in 2008. After a lengthy court battle, he has since been ordered to repay the money.

Investigators suspect the arbitration process was rigged in favour of Tapie, who had supported Sarkozy in his 2007 election campaign.

Lagarde, who served as finance minister until 2011, has always insisted she acted in France’s best interest.

Although she is not accused of personally profiting from the payment, she has been criticised for failing to challenge the award.

The prosecution says that through her actions, Lagarde “deprived the state of a chance to avoid this money being misused”.

She will be judged by a panel of three judges and 12 lawmakers selected from France’s upper and lower houses of parliament.

Lagarde succeeded her disgraced compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF managing director after he resigned to fight sexual assault charges.

Another former IMF head, Spaniard Rodrigo Rato, is currently standing trial for misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia. AFP</s>International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde went on trial in Paris on Monday over her role in a €400 million payout of French taxpayer money to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008.

Ms Lagarde (60) was France’s finance minister in the government of then-president Nicolas Sarkozy when she approved an out-of-court settlement with Mr Tapie to end a long-running dispute between the magnate and the French state.

Accused of negligence leading to misuse of public funds, she denies any wrongdoing. She risks up to a year in jail and a fine of €15,000 if convicted.

Were it to happen, a maximum sentence could raise questions about the widely respected politician’s ability to continue as head of the Washington-based IMF, where her predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn quit in 2011 over a sex assault scandal.

On the eve of Monday’s trial opening, Ms Lagarde told France 2 public television she was confident and she denied favouring Mr Tapie or having acted on Mr Sarkozy’s orders.

“Negligence is a non-intentional offence. I think we are all a bit negligent sometimes in our life. I have done my job as well as I could, within the limits of what I knew,” she said.

Investigators have said that Ms Lagarde’s behaviour in the case went beyond simple carelessness.

Her trial is only the fifth to be held before the Cour de Justice de la Republique, a special tribunal created in 1993 to try cabinet ministers.

A panel of 15, including 12 politicians from both the lower and upper houses of parliament, will hear the case, which is scheduled to run until December 20th.

They are expected to focus on correspondence between Ms Lagarde and her staff as well as the government body that manages state corporate holdings, which advised against private arbitration.

The case dates back to a time when Mr Tapie sued the state for compensation after selling his stake in sports company Adidas to then state-owned Credit Lyonnais in 1993.

He accused the bank of defrauding him after it resold its stake for a much higher price. With the case stuck in the courts, the two sides agreed to private settlement and Mr Tapie was awarded in 2008 a €403 million payout, including interest.</s>PARIS (AP) — A lawyer for International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says he wants a delay in a high-profile trial in which she’s accused of negligence for allowing a huge handout to a well-connected businessman.

Lagarde faces up to a year in prison if convicted in the case, which dates to her time as French finance minister. She contests the charges.

Lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said on Europe-1 radio that he will seek a postponement when the proceedings open Monday, arguing that it doesn’t make sense for Lagarde to go on trial while a separate investigation in the case is still underway.

The case revolves around a $425 million arbitration deal given to tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008 over the botched sale of sportswear maker Adidas in the 1990s.
Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, goes on trial in France for alleged negligence as Finance Minister resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of euros.