'Sex Assault' IMF Chief Denied $1m Bail

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been denied bail after appearing in court charged with trying to rape a New York hotel maid.

A judge refused his attorney's $1m bail offer and remanded him in custody.

Strauss-Kahn , a frontrunner for the French presidency, will reappear in court on Friday.

His lawyer told journalists outside the court the 62-year-old father-of-four was "disappointed" with the outcome and said the battle "has just begun".

He had been due before the state judge on Sunday evening.

But the hearing was delayed to allow for DNA testing and examinations for other evidence including scratches on his body.

Court documents showed the seven charges against the banking boss carry a maximum penalty of 74 years and three months in jail.

Strauss-Kahn, looking very tired as he stood in the dock, had his irises scanned on entering the courtroom.

The court heard US prosecutors say he "engaged in similar conduct" once before and asked the judge to remand him in custody.

The executive board of the IMF held an "informal" meeting to discuss the arrest of its managing director but did not announce any decision on his future.

Strauss-Kahn was seen in New York on Sunday night as two detectives escorted him from a police station to a waiting car.

Wearing handcuffs, he was driven to Manhattan Criminal Court.

The sex assault charges have thrown the IMF into turmoil just as it was trying to ease the growing eurozone debt crisis.

But it has insisted it is business as usual with director Caroline Atkinson saying: "The IMF remains fully functioning and operational."

The allegations have also turned the French presidential election campaign on its head after polls showed Strauss-Kahn to be a clear favourite.

His home country is said to have been in shock as the news broke.

The IMF chief is accused of sexually assaulting a maid at the $3,000-a-night Sofitel Hotel near New York's Times Square on Saturday afternoon.

He had been staying there before a weekend trip to Europe to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Police claim he fled after the alleged attack and had left behind his mobile phone and other personal effects.

Strauss-Kahn then apparently called the hotel from JFK Airport to say he had forgotten his phone, telling them where he was.

Hotel staff passed on this information to police when they launched their investigation into the maid's complaint.

Two officers confronted him in the first class cabin of an Air France flight minutes before it was due to take off for Paris.

His alleged victim later picked him out of a police line-up that included five other men.

She has not been named although the hotel manager said she had worked there for three years and had been a "completely satisfactory" employee.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said: "She told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her.

"She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room."

Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity from the charges which, if proven, could carry a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.

Forensic officers have examined his luxury hotel suite - which included a conference room, marble bathroom and a king-sized bed - for DNA evidence.

Strauss-Kahn's wife, French TV personality Anne Sinclair, has vowed to stand by him.

"I do not believe for a single second the accusations levelled against my husband. I have no doubt that his innocence will be established," she said in a statement.

In a further blow, a French author is now considering filing a legal complaint against the IMF chief over an alleged sexual incident almost a decade ago.

Tristane Banon claimed she had to physically fight off him off when he tried to seduce her in 2002, when she was 22.

Strauss-Kahn was a family friend and Ms Banon reportedly did not file charges at the time after pressure from her mother, a local Socialist Party councillor.

The IMF has appointed John Lipsky as acting managing director to fill in for Strauss-Kahn while the investigation is ongoing.

The charges are a huge embarrassment for the organisation, which oversees the global economic system and has lent a fortune to countries hit by the credit crunch.