The Paris apartment of Christine Lagarde, the head of the international Monetary Fund, was raided by the police as part of investigation into abuse of authority in 2008, when Ms Lagarde was the French Minister of Economy.
Christine Lagarde allegedly interfered with the trial of the dispute between French billionaire Bernard Tapie and the state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais. Mr Tapie borrowed a loan from the bank to buy Adidas shares and later accused Credit Lyonnais of forcing him to sell the securities. As the billionaire puts it, he suffered enormous losses eventually. Christine Lagarde is suspected of passing the litigation to a special arbitration court. As a result of her assistance, the bank was bound to pay 405 million euros to Mr Tapie as indemnity.
The investigation into the Lagarde case got underway in 2011. If the IMF head is found guilty, she will have to resign. However, Christine denies all the allegations. Lagarde's lawyer said the searches “will serve to establish the truth and will contribute to the exoneration of my client of any criminal wrongdoing”.