Reuters/New York

Feminist leaders and activists hold a protest in front of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, DC, demanding that Strauss-Kahn be removed from his post. Strauss-Kahn later resigned from his post as IMF chief via a letter sent from jail. Inset: Strauss-Kahn: has a history
Law enforcement authorities are reviewing at least two earlier cases involving alleged sexual misconduct by former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who faces charges of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.
A source familiar with the investigation of Strauss-Kahn’s alleged violent encounter with a maid at the Sofitel near Times Square last Saturday said investigators are reviewing the case of Piroska Nagy, an IMF economist who had an affair with Strauss-Kahn three years ago.
Authorities are also looking into reports that Strauss-Kahn engaged in “similar conduct” to that alleged in New York at least once in the past, a Manhattan prosecutor said earlier this week, without providing details.
The law enforcement source told Reuters the prosecutor was referring to a 2002 incident involving a young French writer in France. Previous allegations of abuse are considered relevant to the examination of Strauss-Kahn’s “conduct and background,” the source said.
The IMF disclosed in 2008 that it was investigating whether Strauss-Kahn abused his power by becoming involved with Nagy, an economist in the IMF’s Africa division.
At the time, Strauss-Kahn claimed that he had co-operated with an investigation the IMF launched into the matter and said: “At no time did I abuse my position as the Fund’s managing director.”
But in an October 2008 letter she sent to a lawyer who was investigating the matter for the IMF, Nagy said she believed Strauss-Kahn abused his position by summoning her on several occasions to make “inappropriate suggestions”.
“Despite my long professional life, I was unprepared by advances by the Managing Director of the IMF. I did not know how to handle this; as I told you I felt that I was ‘damned if I did and damned if I didn’t’,” Nagy wrote.
“After a period I made the serious mistake of letting myself sucked into a very short affair. But it is, in my view, incontestable that Mr Strauss-Kahn made use of his position to obtain access to me,” her letter continued.
While calling Strauss-Kahn “a brilliant leader with a vision for addressing the ongoing global financial crisis”, Nagy said his aggression and intense charm were liabilities.
“I fear that he is a man with a problem that may make him ill-equipped to lead an institution where women work under his command,” Nagy concluded.
Nagy left the IMF a few months after the affair occurred. Her lawyer said she took a buyout along with other staff as part of a cost-cutting drive and was not pressured to leave.
A person close to Nagy told Reuters she had been advised by her lawyers not to comment on recent events.
On Monday, Manhattan prosecutor John McConnell alluded to reports that Strauss-Kahn “has in fact engaged in conduct similar to” the allegedly violent encounter with a Sofitel maid last Saturday morning which led to the ex-IMF chief’s arrest.
McConnell did not give details of the alleged earlier incident, although he said that authorities were “attempting to verify all of this”.
The source close to the investigation confirmed yesterday that the prosecutor was referencing the case of Tristane Banon, a French writer who claimed that Strauss-Kahn had attempted to violently seduce her when she went to interview him in 2002.
Banon filed no complaint against Strauss-Kahn following the alleged incident.
But in a text message to Reuters on Monday, a lawyer representing her said she might now file a complaint against him over the earlier incident.
In a 2007 television appearance, Banon, who was 22 at the time of her alleged confrontation with Strauss-Kahn, described the politician as a “rutting chimpanzee”.
“It ended really badly. We ended up fighting. It finished really violently,” she said in the TV appearance, which was posted on the Internet and widely cited on French websites.
“We fought on the floor. It wasn’t a case of a couple of slaps. I kicked him, he unhooked my bra, he tried to open my jeans,” Banon said.
She did not file charges at the time of the alleged assault after her mother Anne Mansouret, a local Socialist Party councilor and Strauss-Kahn friend, persuaded her against bringing proceedings.
But David Koubbi, a lawyer who now represents Banon, e-mailed Reuters: “We are considering filing a complaint.”