IMF chief Lagarde to face trial in France over Tapie deal

France's highest appeals court ruled on Friday that International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial for her role in a €400-million ($440 million) state payout in 2008 to businessman Bernard Tapie. She was France's finance minister at the time.

The court rejected her appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial at the Cour de Justice de la Republique, a special court that tries ministers for crimes in office.

Her lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve expressed regret over the decision and said he was convinced that the trial would show she was innocent.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said that its executive board had been briefed on the matter and continued to have confidence in Lagarde's capacity to carry out her functions.

Lagarde is accused of negligence by improperly signing off on a decision to allow an extremely rare out-of-court arbitration in a dispute between Tapie, a supporter of conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy, and the state.

The arbitration judges later ruled in Tapie's favour and ordered the state payout to him, but appeals courts have since thrown out that settlement decision.

A Paris appeals court has ordered Tapie to reimburse the state, but the businessman has lodged an appeal, which is still pending.

The case goes back to when Tapie sued the state for compensation after selling his stake in sports company Adidas to Credit Lyonnais in 1993. He claimed the bank had defrauded him after it later resold his stake for a much higher sum.

Despite the case looming over her, Lagarde was appointed in January for a second five-year term as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Lagarde has had a high-flying career, first as a top corporate lawyer in the United States, then as a cabinet minister and most recently as managing director at the IMF.

At the IMF, she has won praise for persuading the US Congress to approve a landmark reform programme that shifted more voting power to China and other key emerging market countries and has generally been considered a skilful negotiator.

 As France's finance minister from 2007 to 2011 Lagarde played a key role in Europe's response to the global financial crisis.

Born in Paris and raised in the northern port city of Le Havre, Lagarde is a vocal proponent of women as senior executives, once noting dryly that if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, it might have survived.