A French court today acquitted former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of pimping, holding that there was no proof that he knew that the women at sex parties he attended were prostitutes, reported The Guardian.

Strauss-Kahn, 66 - widely known by his initials DSK - was accused of helping to procure sex workers for an alleged prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille.

He stood, alongside 13 co-defendants, charged with “aggravated pimping”.

Strauss-Kahn has admitted to being present at the orgies but has always maintained that he did not know that some of the women involved were being paid.

The verdict brings to a close four years of legal proceedings against Strauss-Kahn, including charges of attempted rape which were dropped in 2012, with him [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/10/dominique-strauss-kahn-case-settled later settling a civil suit with her.

Sex workers described his rough behaviour at some of the parties. But, Strauss-Kahn said that he was not on trial for “deviant practices”. Damaging testimonials were given against him at the trial, with one sex worker describing the scene as “a bit bestial”, as reported by The Guardian in February of this year.

During the closing arguments at his trial, the Lille prosecutor Frederic Fevre told the court that they were “working with the penal code, not the moral code”.

Fevre also said that neither the investigation nor the evidence in court had established that he was guilty.