Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned late on Wednesday night as managing director of the International Monetary Fund after being charged earlier this week with alleged sexual assault, saying that he wanted to protect the organisation and his family from further damage.
“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,” he said, in a statement posted on the IMF’s website.
Tendering a formal letter of resignation to the board, he insisted that he denied “with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.”