Paris - The specialist gendarmerie national unit has had a damn good rummage among Christine Lagarde's smalls as it executed a search warrant on her Paris home.
The former French finance minister is under suspicion of hoarding excessive amounts of expensive lingerie - er...nodding through a highly controversial compensation package! - benefiting Paris businessman Bernard Tapie.
A 20 year dispute ended with him being awarded 400m Euros - £340m - damages in a dispute with Credit Lyonnais, a part state-owned bank whose ultimate boss was Madame Lagarde.
Critics said the private arbitration hearing deal was a 'fix' and subsequently benefited French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy's shady dealings, now the subject of a major investigation.
This morning Lagarde was at pains to deny any wrong doing as police delved deeper into the Tapie connection.
A supremely confident and accomplished operator Madame Lagarde replaced notorious sex predator Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011 at the top IMF post after testing squeaky clean in a background sweep.
Today's dawn raid is the latest in a series of police operations targeting public figures to uncover the 'truth' in the 20-year long scam.
Formidable, alors.
