國際貨幣基金組織（IMF）總裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德在其瀆職案開庭前信心滿滿地表示，自己將獲無罪判決。此案要追溯到拉加德?lián)畏▏斦块L期間，她被指在法國政府向某位法國大亨支付4.25億美元一事上存在瀆職行為。

上周日晚間，拉加德在法國電視二臺上表示：“瀆職是非故意違法。在生活中，我們都會在這樣或那樣的時候在某件事上疏忽大意。我已經(jīng)竭盡全力，盡可能好地完成自己的工作?！?

本周一開始的瀆職案庭審涉及八年前法國政府支付給本國大亨貝爾納德?塔皮耶的數(shù)億美元款項。塔皮耶和當時的法國總統(tǒng)尼古拉斯·薩科齊關系密切。拉加德的律師曾說有關這個長期爭議話題的指控“毫無價值”，但去年7月拉加德阻止法院受理此案的嘗試以失敗告終。

本次庭審預計將延續(xù)到12月20日。以下是大家在開庭之際需要了解的信息：

1. 指控要追溯到2008年。

涉訴事項是2008年法國政府向薩科齊的支持者塔皮耶支付了一筆款項，目的是了結這位大亨和里昂信貸銀行的糾紛。塔皮耶此前指控里昂信貸銀行的起因是后者在20世紀90年代中期負責轉(zhuǎn)讓了他在體育用品公司阿迪達斯的多數(shù)股份。

2007年拉加德成為法國財長時上述糾紛尚未得到解決，所以就擺在了她的面前。拉加德下令通過非公開仲裁來解決此事，而不是走常規(guī)的庭審途徑。仲裁的結果是動用了公共資金，這觸怒了法國公眾。去年，巴黎一法院判令塔皮耶歸還這筆錢。

2. 調(diào)查者稱她犯了一些錯誤。

調(diào)查此事的幾位法官指出，60歲的拉加德在使用仲裁手段時犯了錯誤。他們還說，拉加德的錯誤在于沒有對此提出質(zhì)疑，這表明她被塔皮耶和薩科齊的政治關系所左右（在上周日晚間法國電視二臺的直播節(jié)目中，拉加德否認自己是奉薩科齊的指令行事）。但這些法官在調(diào)查報告中寫道：“拉加德女士的行為不僅存在可疑的粗心和倉促跡象，還存在一連串錯誤。就其性質(zhì)、數(shù)量和嚴重程度而言，這些錯誤已經(jīng)超越了疏忽大意的范疇?！?

3. 如果被叛有罪，拉加德可能入獄并遭罰款。

瀆職罪如果坐實，這位IMF總裁就可能面臨最長一年的牢獄之災以及1.5萬歐元（1.6萬美元）的罰款。庭審預計將進行到12月20日，但還不清楚法官具體會在什么時候宣判。

4. IMF理事會仍支持她。

盡管有此案纏身，拉加德仍在2月份連任IMF常務理事，任期五年。從那時起，IMF理事會就一直在支持她。拉加德是IMF首位女總裁，也是首位G8女財長。但如果被判有罪，拉加德的工作就可能不保。

5. 她并非首位吃官司的IMF總裁。

拉加德在IMF的前任多米尼克·斯特勞斯-卡恩被指性侵紐約酒店女傭，于2011年離開了IMF。對卡恩的刑事指控未被法院受理，涉事酒店女傭納菲薩杜·迪亞洛在紐約市布朗克斯區(qū)提起的民事訴訟于2012年和解。本周的庭審開始前，此案讓拉加德的第二個IMF總裁任期蒙上了一層陰影。畢竟，這個機構以自身的道德高標準為傲。

的確，法律分析師、巴黎、紐約和華盛頓律師協(xié)會成員克里斯托弗·梅斯魯對美聯(lián)社表示，塔皮耶案有“強烈的政治色彩”，法國人“明顯感覺到了這一點”，原因是“其中牽涉公共資金問題”。 （財富中文網(wǎng)）

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作者：Laura Cohn

譯者：Charlie

審校：詹妮

On the eve of her trial for alleged negligence over a $425 million government payout to a French tycoon while serving as France’s finance minister, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde sounded confident that she would be exonerated.

“Negligence is a non-intentional offense,” Lagarde, a lawyer by training, told the national public television channel France 2 on Sunday night. “We’re all negligent at something at one point or another in our lives. I tried to do my work the best I could within the limits of what I knew.”

Monday marked the beginning of the IMF head’s trial for alleged negligence over a multi-million-euro government payout made eight years ago to French tycoon Bernard Tapie, who was close to then-President Nicolas Sarkozy. Lagarde, whose attorney has said allegations in the long-running dispute are “without merit,” failed last July in her attempt to have the case dismissed.

The trial is expected to run through Dec. 20. Here’s what you need to know as it kicks off:

1. The charges date back to 2008.

At issue is the French government’s 2008 payment to Tapie—a backer of Sarkozy—to settle a dispute the tycoon was having with French bank Credit Lyonnais. Tapie had sued Credit Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas in the mid-1990s.

In 2007, the year Lagarde became France’s finance minister, the battle had yet to be resolved. So it fell to her, and she ordered a settlement through a private arbitration panel, as opposed to going through the regular court system. The move led to a payout from public funds, and angered the French public. Last year, a Paris court ordered Tapie to repay the money.

2. Investigators say she made a number of errors.

Judges who investigated the matter claim Lagarde, 60, made mistakes in using arbitration. They also say she erred in not challenging the deal, which suggest she was swayed by Tapie’s political ties to Sarkozy. (In the France 2 interview that aired Sunday night, Lagarde denied she was following Sarkozy’s orders.) But in their investigation, the judges wrote: “Ms. Lagarde’s behavior proceeds not only from a questionable carelessness and precipitation, but also from a conjunction of faults which, by their nature, number and seriousness, exceed the level of mere negligence.”

3. If convicted, Lagarde could face prison and be fined.

The IMF head, if found guilty of negligence, could wind up facing as long as a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros ($16,000). The trial is expected to run through December 20, but it is unclear precisely when the judges will announce their ruling.

4. Yet the IMF board backs her.

Even with this case hanging over her, Lagarde was appointed to a second five-year term as managing director of the IMF back in February. Since then, the board has continued to support Lagarde, who is the first female head of the IMF and the first woman to serve as finance minister of a Group of Eight nation. But if she is convicted, her position would be in jeopardy.

5. She isn’t the first IMF head to run into legal trouble.

Lagarde’s predecessor at the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, left the organization in 2011 after being accused of sexual assault by a hotel housekeeper in New York. The criminal case was dismissed, but the civil case that the worker, Nafissatou Diallo, filed in the Bronx was settled in 2012. Before Lagarde’s trial began this week, the case threatened to draw a dark cloud over her second term at the helm of the IMF, which, after all, is an institution that prides itself on having a strong moral authority.

Indeed, Christopher Mesnooh, legal analyst and lawyer with the Paris, New York and Washington bars, told the Associated Press that the whole Tapie case is “highly political” and that the French have a “strong feeling about it” because “there is a question of public money involved.”