Former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn charged with 'aggravated pimping'

July 1, 2012: Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn listens to proceedings in New York State Supreme court in New York.

Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be tried on charges of pimping, prosecutors announced Friday.

Fox News confirms that French prosecutors in Lille said investigating judges determined that Strauss-Kahn, 64, should be judged by a criminal court. He had been under investigation in the case since last year.

“We're not in the realm of the law, we're in ideology. We're sending someone to court for nothing,'' Henri Leclerc, one of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, told Reuters.

Strauss-Kahn has acknowledged attending sex parties at a hotel in Lille, where some of the women who participated were prostitutes, a fact that the former French finance minister says he was unaware of.

Strauss-Kahn was charged with “aggravated pimping,” which allegedly involved more than one prostitute. Under French law, pimping is a broad crime that can include aiding or encouraging the act of prostitution. If convicted, Strauss-Kahn faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.

Strauss-Kahn quit his post in 2011 after a maid accused him of rape in New York, a charge that was later dropped.

Reuters contributed to this report.