IMF总裁渎职案：要知道的五件事

国际货币基金组织（IMF）总裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德在其渎职案开庭前信心满满地表示，自己将获无罪判决。此案要追溯到拉加德担任法国财政部长期间，她被指在法国政府向某位法国大亨支付4.25亿美元一事上存在渎职行为。

上周日晚间，拉加德在法国电视二台上表示：“渎职是非故意违法。在生活中，我们都会在这样或那样的时候在某件事上疏忽大意。我已经竭尽全力，尽可能好地完成自己的工作。”

本周一开始的渎职案庭审涉及八年前法国政府支付给本国大亨贝尔纳德•塔皮耶的数亿美元款项。塔皮耶和当时的法国总统尼古拉斯·萨科齐关系密切。拉加德的律师曾说有关这个长期争议话题的指控“毫无价值”，但去年7月拉加德阻止法院受理此案的尝试以失败告终。

本次庭审预计将延续到12月20日。以下是大家在开庭之际需要了解的信息：

1. 指控要追溯到2008年。

涉诉事项是2008年法国政府向萨科齐的支持者塔皮耶支付了一笔款项，目的是了结这位大亨和里昂信贷银行的纠纷。塔皮耶此前指控里昂信贷银行的起因是后者在20世纪90年代中期负责转让了他在体育用品公司阿迪达斯的多数股份。

2007年拉加德成为法国财长时上述纠纷尚未得到解决，所以就摆在了她的面前。拉加德下令通过非公开仲裁来解决此事，而不是走常规的庭审途径。仲裁的结果是动用了公共资金，这触怒了法国公众。去年，巴黎一法院判令塔皮耶归还这笔钱。

2. 调查者称她犯了一些错误。

调查此事的几位法官指出，60岁的拉加德在使用仲裁手段时犯了错误。他们还说，拉加德的错误在于没有对此提出质疑，这表明她被塔皮耶和萨科齐的政治关系所左右（在上周日晚间法国电视二台的直播节目中，拉加德否认自己是奉萨科齐的指令行事）。但这些法官在调查报告中写道：“拉加德女士的行为不仅存在可疑的粗心和仓促迹象，还存在一连串错误。就其性质、数量和严重程度而言，这些错误已经超越了疏忽大意的范畴。”

3. 如果被叛有罪，拉加德可能入狱并遭罚款。

渎职罪如果坐实，这位IMF总裁就可能面临最长一年的牢狱之灾以及1.5万欧元（1.6万美元）的罚款。庭审预计将进行到12月20日，但还不清楚法官具体会在什么时候宣判。

4. IMF理事会仍支持她。

尽管有此案缠身，拉加德仍在2月份连任IMF常务理事，任期五年。从那时起，IMF理事会就一直在支持她。拉加德是IMF首位女总裁，也是首位G8女财长。但如果被判有罪，拉加德的工作就可能不保。

5. 她并非首位吃官司的IMF总裁。

拉加德在IMF的前任多米尼克·斯特劳斯-卡恩被指性侵纽约酒店女佣，于2011年离开了IMF。对卡恩的刑事指控未被法院受理，涉事酒店女佣纳菲萨杜·迪亚洛在纽约市布朗克斯区提起的民事诉讼于2012年和解。本周的庭审开始前，此案让拉加德的第二个IMF总裁任期蒙上了一层阴影。毕竟，这个机构以自身的道德高标准为傲。

的确，法律分析师、巴黎、纽约和华盛顿律师协会成员克里斯托弗·梅斯鲁对美联社表示，塔皮耶案有“强烈的政治色彩”，法国人“明显感觉到了这一点”，原因是“其中牵涉公共资金问题”。 （财富中文网）

作者：Laura Cohn

译者：Charlie

审校：詹妮

On the eve of her trial for alleged negligence over a $425 million government payout to a French tycoon while serving as France’s finance minister, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde sounded confident that she would be exonerated.

“Negligence is a non-intentional offense,” Lagarde, a lawyer by training, told the national public television channel France 2 on Sunday night. “We’re all negligent at something at one point or another in our lives. I tried to do my work the best I could within the limits of what I knew.”

Monday marked the beginning of the IMF head’s trial for alleged negligence over a multi-million-euro government payout made eight years ago to French tycoon Bernard Tapie, who was close to then-President Nicolas Sarkozy. Lagarde, whose attorney has said allegations in the long-running dispute are “without merit,” failed last July in her attempt to have the case dismissed.

The trial is expected to run through Dec. 20. Here’s what you need to know as it kicks off:

1. The charges date back to 2008.

At issue is the French government’s 2008 payment to Tapie—a backer of Sarkozy—to settle a dispute the tycoon was having with French bank Credit Lyonnais. Tapie had sued Credit Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas in the mid-1990s.

In 2007, the year Lagarde became France’s finance minister, the battle had yet to be resolved. So it fell to her, and she ordered a settlement through a private arbitration panel, as opposed to going through the regular court system. The move led to a payout from public funds, and angered the French public. Last year, a Paris court ordered Tapie to repay the money.

2. Investigators say she made a number of errors.

Judges who investigated the matter claim Lagarde, 60, made mistakes in using arbitration. They also say she erred in not challenging the deal, which suggest she was swayed by Tapie’s political ties to Sarkozy. (In the France 2 interview that aired Sunday night, Lagarde denied she was following Sarkozy’s orders.) But in their investigation, the judges wrote: “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.”

3. If convicted, Lagarde could face prison and be fined.

The IMF head, if found guilty of negligence, could wind up facing as long as a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros ($16,000). The trial is expected to run through December 20, but it is unclear precisely when the judges will announce their ruling.

4. Yet the IMF board backs her.

Even with this case hanging over her, Lagarde was appointed to a second five-year term as managing director of the IMF back in February. Since then, the board has continued to support Lagarde, who is the first female head of the IMF and the first woman to serve as finance minister of a Group of Eight nation. But if she is convicted, her position would be in jeopardy.

5. She isn’t the first IMF head to run into legal trouble.

Lagarde’s predecessor at the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, left the organization in 2011 after being accused of sexual assault by a hotel housekeeper in New York. The criminal case was dismissed, but the civil case that the worker, Nafissatou Diallo, filed in the Bronx was settled in 2012. Before Lagarde’s trial began this week, the case threatened to draw a dark cloud over her second term at the helm of the IMF, which, after all, is an institution that prides itself on having a strong moral authority.

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