Strauss-Kahn to advise Serbian government

Former IMF chief, who faces aggravated pimping charges in France, will serve as economic adviser to top officials.

dominique strauss - kahn
Strauss-Kahn is facing preliminary charges of aggravated pimping in a prostitution probe in Lille [AFP]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, will serve as an economic adviser to the Serbian government’s top officials, according to Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

Vucic said on state television late on Thursday that Strauss-Kahn will advise him, and Serbia’s prime minister and finance minister on restructuring the country’s large foreign debt.

Vucic asserted that the charges of aggravated pimping levied against Strauss-Kahn in France did not tarnish his reputation as a financial expert.

“Big [painter] Picasso treated women and children very badly, while some other people, like Hilter, loved women,” he said.

The French case revolves around an alleged hotel prostitution ring and hinges on whether Strauss-Kahn knew he was partying with prostitutes and whose money was used to pay them.

His lawyers have said Strauss-Kahn had attended “libertine” gatherings but did not know that some women there were paid.

No trial date has been set for Strauss-Khan and 13 other people in France, a country where it is not illegal to pay for sex, but it is against the law to solicit or to run a prostitution business.

The case is only the latest raised against Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from the IMF before charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York in May 2011 were dropped.

Source: AP