Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the IMF, goes on trial on pimping charges

Power can be a heady aphrodisiac and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, when chief of the International Monetary Fund and about to run for French president, had plenty of it.

But eventually his power, apparently used to feed his voracious sexual appetite, would prove his undoing.

"Yes, I like women, so what?" the silver-haired Strauss-Kahn told the newspaper in April 2011, just weeks before his high-flying career imploded over accusations he sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid.

After settling the case in a civil suit, Strauss-Kahn admitted "a moral failing", but the next sex scandal was just around the corner when he became a key suspect in an investigation into a prostitution ring in northern France and Belgium.

The once-dazzling politician and economist, known as DSK in France, goes on trial today for "aggravated pimping" over his role in initiating sex parties attended by prostitutes in France, Belgium and Washington.

Strauss-Kahn, who denies the charge, was ordered to stand trial in 2012 by investigating magistrates despite prosecutors calling for the charges to be dropped for lack of evidence.

The case, known as the "Carlton Affair", began with a probe of a notorious pimp who owns a string of bordellos near the French border in Belgium, where prostitution and brothel ownership are legal.