By Charlotte Young

The woman who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn raped her is no “money-grubbing opportunist”, her lawyer states. A recorded conversation between the woman, Nafissatou Diallo, and her incarcerated friend reveals that the hotel maid was more concerned about what happened to her than Strauss-Kahn’s wealth.

At the request of Diallo’s attorney, Kenneth Thompson, the tapes  of the conversation were reviewed in a meeting with prosecutors on Wednesday. The meeting lasted almost eight hours.

On the tapes, Diallo speaks in Fulani, a West African language, to her friend detained in an Arizona immigration detention center. In the first conversation, Diallo details that someone had forced her to do something she didn’t want to do and had tried to rape her and that this person was a powerful man.

According to the Salon, this directly contrasts with the New York Times report that a law enforcement official had anonymously disclosed that Diallo had told her friend that “this guy has a lot of money,” and that she knew what she was doing, shortly before Strauss-Kahn was arrested.

Mentions of Straus-Kahn’s status and her plans to get a lawyer took place in two separate conversations.

Diallo’s credibility has been brought under question as she admittedly exaggerated her background in Guinea with tales of gang-rang in efforts to secure asylum in the US. Prosecutors also doubt her account of her actions on what she did directly after the alleged assault took place on May 14.

While traces of his semen were found on her work uniform, Diallo’s shaky accounts have hurt the possibility of a prosecution.

Diallo recently made appearances on Newsweek and ABC News, asking for prosecutors to keep the case alive. Prosecutors decided on Tuesday to postpone Strauss-Kahn’s court date from Aug. 1 to Aug. 23. At that time, they will then make the decision whether or not to continue with the case.

Before the incident, the former International Monetary Fund leader had been a solid French presidential contender. He was arrested after Diallo released statements that he had “forced her to perform oral sex, manhandled her and ripped down her stockings” in his Sofitel Hotel luxury suite close to Times Square in Manhattan.

While Diallo may not have focused on Strauss-Kahn’s money, Thompson said that it was within her rights to sue him. For the moment, the Salon reports Diallo plans to visit religious, women’s and African community groups at a Brooklyn Christian center to thank her supporters.

(Wall Street Journal) — A company controlled by Robert L. Johnson, the founder of the Black Entertainment Television network, has cut a $335 million deal for a Midtown hotel known for its striking architecture.  The upscale Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel is the third hotel that Mr. Johnson’s RLJ Development has bought in Manhattan since 2008. He also bought the Hilton Garden Inn at 63 W. 35th St. and the Fashion 26 Hotel at 152 W. 26th St. for more than $100 million each.  ”These assets are compliant with our investment strategy to buy high-caliber real estate,” RLJ Development President Thomas J. Baltimore Jr. said in an interview Friday. “In New York, we have significant demand growth and high barriers to entry.”

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(Eurweb.com) *Jay-Z has scrapped plans to build a luxury hotel in his native New York after the venture became mired in litigation, reports the New York Post.  The rap mogul and his business partners have reportedly pulled out of the J Hotel project altogether and returned the site to its lenders for $52 million.  Jay-Z’s group purchased the property in Dec. 2007 for $66 million, and obtained the multi-million dollar loan that was assigned to investment managers Highland Capital Management LP and serviced by NexBank SSB. But the deal went bad after partners failed to attract investors and there was a shortfall in funds – prompting Jay-Z to offer the land back to bosses at Highland rather than face foreclosure.

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