IMF boss convicted in fraud scandal, but not sentenced

This video says about itself:

12 December 2016

IMF chief Christine Lagarde goes on trial over ‘negligent’ £338million state payout to tycoon but insists it was ‘in the state’s interest’.

Christine Lagarde was President Nicolas Sarkozy‘s finance minister in 2008.

She approved a deal by which tycoon Bernard Tapie was given a £338m handout.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

No punishment for guilty IMF top woman Lagarde

Today, 15:44

IMF boss Christine Lagarde was found guilty by a court in Paris of negligence. But the court does not impose a penalty for Lagarde.

The case against the 60-year-old Lagarde was about a disputed payment to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008, when Lagarde was Minister of Economic Affairs. A special court then handed Tapie 400 million euros [of taxpayers’ money], because he had allegedly been treated unfairly in an equity transaction. Later it turned out that there were links between Tapie and one of the judges.

The court has now ruled that Lagarde should have appealed against the compensation because there were suspicions of fraud already in 2008. Also Lagarde’s staff had advised to stop the payment, but she did not. That’s why she now had to stand trial for neglicence. …

Lagarde did not wait for the verdict and on Saturday was already flown back to the IMF office in Washington. Whether the judgment will affect her job is unclear. “It’s waiting now to see how the IMF board will react,” said [NOS correspondent] Renaut.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde let off scot-free after negligence conviction: here.

So, the verdict is that Ms Lagarde is guilty, but gets just a slap on the wrist. If some unemployed person would be involved in a fraud affair, not of 400 million euros, but of 400 euros, that person probably would be sentenced much more harshly than Ms Lagarde.

It reminds me of Dutch xenophobic politician Geert Wilders. Wilders was recently convicted by a Dutch court of racism; but, like Ms Lagarde, he did not have to pay a fine of a single euro and did not have to spend a single minute in jail. While some hot-headed poor young Dutch Muslim who would have insulted Dutch non-Muslims in a similar way as Wilders insulted Moroccans, other Muslims, Romanians, Poles etc. would not have come off as lightly as Wilders.