Anne Sinclair Uses Family's Fortune to Fight Dominique-Strauss Kahn's Sex Assault Charges
Former IMF head and wife moving to new luxury apartment for house arrest.
May 23, 2011 — -- Anne Sinclair, the wife of former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is using her millions to help her husband fight sexual assault charges.
Sinclair, 62, was spotted leaving the luxury high rise in lower Manhattan where Strauss-Kahn is temporarily living during his house arrest. Sinclair is arranging for the couple to transfer to a new luxury apartment.
"My guess is that she will stay by his side all the way through. She will stay with him in New York. She will be there at every appearance in front of the court," said Appolline de Malherbe, correspondent for French channel BFMTV.
Since Strauss-Kahn's arrest on May 14 for allegedly sexually assaulting a maid at the Sofitel hotel, Sinclair has defended her husband.
Sinclair was a prominent television journalist in France when she married Strauss-Kahn in 1991. It was his third marriage and her second. Sinclair retreated from her career and became a driving force behind Strauss-Kahn's political ambitions. She used her considerable family fortune to finance his political career.
Sinclair's grandfather amassed a fortune representing artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Now Sinclair is using that same family fortune for her husband's court battle and house arrest.
"He worked a lot, earned a lot of money, but she earned more than he did. Together as a couple, they're worth about $70 million," de Malherbe said.
Already, Sinclair has put up a $1 million cash bail and posted her husband's $5 million insurance bond on Friday when he was released from Riker's Island. She's rented a temporary $4,400 a month apartment near Wall Street and will pay for her Strauss-Kahn's $200,000 round the clock security for the duration of his trial.
Strauss-Kahn's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday that his client will "plead not guilty and in the end, he'll be acquitted."
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Wife Using Family Fortune to Defend Him
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once famous in Europe as a possible candidate to be the next president, is now internationally infamous after a maid at New York City's Sofitel Hotel accused Strauss-Kahn of allegedly attacking her and forcing her to submit to oral sex on May 14. The former IMF head was arrested aboard an Air France plane.
A grand jury indicted the former IMF chief on seven counts, which carry up to 25 years in prison, including charges of criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and sexual abuse.
Law enforcement officials say that on May 14 Strauss-Kahn came out of his his $3,000-a-night suite's bathroom naked and attempted to rape the 32-year-old West African woman who was cleaning it.
The district attorney says the forensic evidence appears to be consistent with her account.
The alleged victim in the case has gone into hiding, but her story is shedding light on just how many sexual assaults against housekeeping staff are reported to hotel security every year.
"Propositioning and touching happens approximately 10 to 12 times per year and the more serious events, such as propositioning in a more aggressive fashion where they're holding the maid against their will and actually sexually assaulting them would occur once or twice per year," said Anthony Romans, a hotel security and risk management consultant.
New York police have spent the past week poring over 48 hours of surveillance footage and interviewing hundreds of Sofitel employees. Strauss-Kahn's next court appearance is set for June 6.
ABC News' Richard Esposito and Russell Goldman contributed to this report.