Dominique Strauss-Kahn can not for the time being go out of his apartment in New York where he has been temporarily placed under house arrest and will have lunch at home, away from his favorite restaurants in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington.
The apartment at number 71 on Broadway, located near Ground Zero, one of the targets of the attacks of 11 September 2001, is not the one in which the former director of the IMF will wait for consequences of judicial saga that opened with his indictment for sexual offenses. This was decided Friday evening “for a few days” by the designated security company to supervise his transfer to another apartment.
Only in this second apartment he will be entitled to a little more freedom of movement. He will be escorted to his lawyers, to the doctor, the court or to the synagogue provided to let the police and justice six hours ahead. Easy to spot, thanks to the electronic bracelet he wears, he can not leave the house between the hours 10 PM and 6 AM.
The next hearing of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, where he will have to plead guilty or not guilty, is scheduled for June 6. So far, he denies the allegations made against him.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, live, therefore, for a few days in an apartment used by the company Stroz Friedberg to temporarily accommodate people under surveillance or to protect informers, retires mobsters or high risk accused people. The company has already took care of Bernard Madoff, under house arrest in his luxurious apartment on the Upper East Side before pleading guilty and being sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison.
Strauss-Kahn couple may receive a visit from relatives and friends, but no more than four at a time, let alone family, and all visitors will be searched upon arrival by armed guards who will guard the entrance day and night. People who deliver pizza or other fast-food restaurants in the neighborhood will be subject to the same controls.
For a man accustomed to a huge house of four million dollars in Georgetown, with two sumptuous apartments in Paris, and a house in Marrakesh, Morocco, life changes radically. In Washington, where he lived after he became director of the IMF in 2007, a man whose candidacy for the presidential election of 2012 was highly regarded ten days ago was leading a discreet life, marked especially by long work days, says journalists specialized in stories about global financial organization.
A driver drove him to his office at IMF every morning and brought him back home late in the evening. The couple, who has many friends, often received visits and hosted about 15 people during the investiture President Barack Obama, said Anne Sinclair on her blog.
If the restaurant’s expenses will be reduced, certainly not the same thing will happen with the other costs: Dominique Strauss-Kahn will have to pay a fortune to the security firm, not counting dozens of other bills, lawyers, and private detectives.