Lust no crime, former financial chief says

PARIS— More than a year after resigning in disgrace as the managing director of the InternationalMonetary Fund, Dominique Strauss- Kahn is seeking redemption with a new consulting company, the lecture circuit and a uniquely French legal defense to settle a criminal inquiry that exposed his hidden life as a libertine.

Strauss- Kahn, 63, a silver- haired economist, is seeking to throw out criminal charges in an inquiry into ties to a prostitution ring in northern France with the legal argument that the authorities are unfairly trying to “criminalize lust.”

That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical judicial hearing in late November, have offered a view into a clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society: secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists andmusicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex withmultiple partners.

On Thursday, StraussKahn broke a long silence to acknowledge that perhaps his double life as an unrestrained libertine was a little outre.

“I long thought that I could leadmy life as I wanted,” he said in an interview with the French magazine Le Point. “And that includes free behavior between consenting adults. ... I was naive.”

But whether his downfall will have a lasting impact on the culture of sexual privilege and impunity for powerful men in France remains uncertain. He declined to be interviewed for this article. This month Strauss- Kahn won a legal battle after a French prosecutor dropped part of the investigation into an alleged sexual assault at a hotel inWashington. A Belgian prostitute recanted her earlier accusation, saying the encounter was just rough sex play, but Strauss- Khan is still a suspect for involvement in a prostitution ring.