The high-flying career of Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, hung in the balance Monday after a special French court convicted her of negligence for not seeking to block a fraudulent 2008 arbitration award to a politically connected tycoon while she was France's finance minister, AP reported. The IMF said it expected its board to meet "shortly" to consider the ruling in Paris. After a weeklong trial, France's Court of Justice of the Republic found Lagarde guilty on one count of negligence but spared her jail time and a criminal record. The 60-year-old IMF leader had risked a year of imprisonment and a fine. Douglas Rediker, who represented the United States on the IMF's executive board from 2010 to 2012, predicted that the board would continue to back Lagarde. The IMF's managing director since 2011, Lagarde took over after another French citizen, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned the post amid sexual assault allegations. The IMF board handed Lagarde a second five-year term in July.
