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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.