IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the embattled managing director of International Monetary Fund, has resigned, saying he wanted to devote "all his energy" to battle the sexual assault charges he faces in New York.

The IMF's executive board released a letter from the French executive Wednesday in which he denied the allegations lodged against him but said that with "sadness" he felt he must resign. He said he was thinking of his family and he wanted to protect the IMF.

"It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the executive board my resignation from my post of managing director of the IMF," the five-paragraph letter said. "I think at this time first of my wife — whom I love more than anything — of my children, of my family, of my friends. I think also of my colleagues at the Fund. Together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more.

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me. I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially — especially — I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence."

Strauss-Kahn, who faced increasing international pressure to quit, announced his decision on the eve of a bail hearing Thursday that could have spelled the end of his leadership of the IMF anyway. He faces charges of assaulting a maid in a New York hotel room.

John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director at the IMF, was serving as acting managing director.

Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn, locked up at Rikers Island on sex assault charges, are scheduled to ask a judge to release him Thursday in exchange for a beefed-up bail package.

In papers filed late Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, an attorney for Strauss-Kahn made the offer two days after Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson rejected a request to free him on $1-million bond. Jackson had said Strauss-Kahn, a potential candidate for the French presidency, was a flight risk.

Strauss-Kahn was arrested Saturday night on an Air France jet by NYPD investigators moments before it was to take off for Paris.

Wednesday, Shawn P. Naunton, an attorney for Strauss-Kahn, offered in court papers to post $1 million in cash and have his client confined to home detention at his daughter's Manhattan residence. Naunton also offered to have Strauss-Kahn wear a 24-hour electronic ankle bracelet.

Naunton noted that Strauss-Kahn's French passport and special travel documents issued by the United Nations had or will be turned over to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

"Mr. Strauss-Kahn is willing to represent to the court that he will voluntarily appear in the Criminal Court . . . for all proceedings relating to the matter with which he is charged," said Naunton in his filing.

Arguments on the bail request are scheduled for Thursday afternoon before Acting State Supreme Court Judge Michael J. Obus, defense attorneys said. Strauss-Kahn is likely to be in court for the bail argument.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, a leader of the Socialist Party in France, was arrested on charges he sexually attacked a chambermaid in his suite at the posh Sofitel hotel in Manhattan.

The 32-year-old maid at the center of the scandal testified yesterday before a Manhattan grand jury.

Prosecutors face a deadline of tomorrow to get an indictment in the case or else the court will order Strauss-Kahn released under state law.

Strauss-Kahn won't be testifying before the grand jury as he has the right to do, said his main defense attorney Benjamin Brafman.

With AP and Bloomberg News