Christine Lagarde, the chief of
the International Monetary Fund, was placed under official investigation
for negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days
as France's finance minister.
In a statement Wednesday after a
fourth round of questioning before magistrates, Lagarde said she would
return to her work in Washington later in the day and said the decision
was "without basis." She is the third IMF managing director in a decade
to face legal troubles.
She and her former chief of staff face questions about their role in a 400 million-euro ($531 million) payment to a businessman.
"After three years of
proceedings, dozens of hours of questioning, the court found from the
evidence that I committed no offense, and the only allegation is that I
was not sufficiently vigilant," she said in her statement.
Under French law, the official
investigation is equivalent to preliminary charges, meaning there is
reason to suspect an infraction. Investigating judges can later drop a
case or issue formal charges and send it to trial.
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