Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and French presidential hopeful, was arrested in New York today over accusations of a sexual attack on his hotel room maid, the New York Times reports. The attack allegedly occurred earlier today in the Times Square hotel where Strauss-Kahn was staying.

Strauss-Kahn was taken off an Air France flight minutes before takeoff by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to Manhattan detectives, according to a Port Authority spokesman. He is expected to be taken to the offices of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit at P.S.A. 5 in Manhattan, another official told the Times.

Strauss-Kahn, who is married to prominent French television journalist Anne Sinclair, had been considered a leading contender to run on the Socialist Party’s ticket against President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nonetheless, this is not his first exposure to controversy. In 2008, Strauss-Kahn was accused of having a sexual relationship with one of his subordinates, Piroska Nagy, a senior official in the IMF’s Africa Department. Nagy left the fund to work elsewhere, and despite an internal investigation, Strauss-Kahn kept his position at the IMF. The Times reports that he later apologized for an “error in judgment.”

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