(Australia-NewsWire.Com, November 11, 2012 ) Victoria, Australia- Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a one-time contender for the French presidency. That was until a New York City hotel maid’s accusation of rape last year brought his resignation as well as a criminal investigation. Strauss-Khan is reportedly taking steps to reinvent himself as a highly-paid consultant and conference speaker.
Strauss-Kahn, 63, a lawyer, economist, and former French cabinet member, was an IMF managing director who had unsuccessfully sought the Socialist nomination for president, before the accusation.
Although DNA evidence linked him with the maid, he denied the rape charge. New York prosecutors eventually dropped the case due to what they said were inconsistent statements by the accuser. A private lawsuit regarding the incident is still pending.
DSK, as Strauss-Kahn was widely known, was also questioned in connection with a probe of a prostitution ring in Lille, France. French prosecutors are due to decide by late November whether to pursue that case.
Until recently, he had been out of the public eye. French media has described him as living in near-exile. However, in the past year Strauss-Kahn has worked to gain a spot as a highly-paid speaker to global business and economic conferences.
Over the past year he has keynoted conferences in China, the Ukraine, Morocco and South Korea. In September, he delivered a talk on the global economic outlook to a conference sponsored by a private university in Morocco. He is slated to address a meeting of Arab bankers in Marrakech in November.
If he is able to establish himself as a sought-after speaker on the international conference circuit, which experts believe he has at least a fair chance of doing, DSK could bring in fees of $100,000 or more per talk.
For example, ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton, who left office in the midst of a sex scandal and an impeachment trial, now earns into the mid- to high-six figures for such speaking engagements.
Financial disclosure statements filed with the State Department by Hillary Clinton show her husband makes took in $750,000 for addressing a telecommunications industry gathering in Hong Kong, and made $500,000 for participating in an Abu Dhabi conference on environmental data.
In Paris, Strauss-Kahn has also filed papers with the commercial court as a preliminary step to start a consulting firm, known as Parnasse. The filing indicates the firm plans to be engaged in finance, real estate, and political consulting both in France and overseas. If he succeeds in establishing himself as an influential advisor on global politics and business, some observers speculate Strauss-Kahn may even entertain reentering public life in Europe. That could make him a rival for Bill Clinton, not only as a richly compensated speaker at global events, but also for the title of Comeback Kid.
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