Neighbors spurn ex-IMF chief, out on bail

NEW YORK – Dominique Strauss-Kahn is out of jail, but instead of living under house arrest in a ritzy Manhattan apartment building that his wife had secured for him, the former head of the International Monetary Fund will stay downtown while he faces charges of sexually assaulting a chambermaid.

Neighbors on the Upper East Side didn’t want Strauss-Kahn in the building, so he’ll stay temporarily near the World Trade Center site in a corporate suite owned by the security company he has hired, at $7,000 a day, to guard him.

Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair, had rented an apartment in the Bristol Plaza on East 65th Street. The plan fell through after neighbors learned that her husband was the Frenchman who became a criminal defendant this week.

“Nobody wanted a swarm of television crews and tourists on the block the way they were for Bernie Madoff,” said Joan Silverman, referring to the financier who lived under house arrest not far away before he went to prison.

State Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus signed off Friday on a $6 million bail package that paved the way for Strauss-Kahn to leave jail as long as he wore an electronic monitoring device, remained under constant guard, regularly checked in with prosecutors and showed up for all his court dates. He left the Rikers Island jail Friday.