Former IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn Amasses Fortune Through Moroccan Consulting Firm

DSK’s activities at the head of Parnasse International since 2012 have earned him some 21 million euros in profits between 2013 and 2018. According to l’Obs, who received this confidence from a source close to the man, "Dominique Strauss-Kahn has never earned so much money in his life." The newspaper goes further and reveals that the former IMF chief would not have paid taxes on this sum until 2018. He had the intelligence "to set up his company in the free zone of Casablanca, where companies do not pay taxes for the five years following their establishment".

DSK, as the sole employee and sole shareholder, paid himself comfortable dividends that make him much better off than "many CAC 40 bosses". Since 2014, the former minister has built his small fortune by acting as a business provider for private organizations and advising leaders in Togo, Mali, Niger or the Democratic Republic of Congo, reveals l’Obs. "I may not be the best economist or the best politician. But in the interstice between the two, I’m not the worst," he assures his entourage.

But before reaching this level that many men and women of his generation envy, DSK went through dark times. Banks turned him away, refusing to hire him because of his reputation. Worse still, BNP, his own deposit bank, cut all ties with him. And to top it all off, his company Leyne Strauss-Kahn & Partners, set up with Israeli businessman Thierry Leyne in 2013, experienced a resounding failure, with 100 million euros in debt and 150 clients left stranded. His partner committed suicide in October 2014, and an investigation was opened and entrusted to three investigating judges.

DSK is still being prosecuted for complicity in organized fraud in this case, for which some defrauded investors may not have filed a complaint. And this is one of the reasons why DSK seems to be putting an end to his political ambitions. Because, according to Jean-Marie Le Guen, the former Secretary of State for relations with Parliament, "he is aware that voters will reproach him for a long time for having betrayed the trust they had placed in him".