A court in France has found Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), guilty of negligence over a massive state payout that she made to a business tycoon in 2008, but exempted her from any penalty.

The ruling was made on Monday after the French Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body that tries ministers for wrongdoing while in office, convicted Lagarde of negligence that paved the way for the payment of 404 million euros (445 million dollars) in compensation to Bernard Tapie, the former owner of sportswear giant, Adidas.

The Paris court censured Lagarde for failing to contest the “colossal” payment, but spared her a fine or prison sentence. Lagarde’s lawyer welcomed the verdict and said he “would have preferred that she be simply cleared.” Patrick Maisonneuve said, “Since Madame Lagarde was not sentenced, I wonder about whether to appeal or not to the highest court.”

Presstv