Former International Monetary Fund chief and French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn awaits arraignment in New York on sexual assault charges, officials said.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was expected to be the Socialist candidate for president of France, is accused of sexually assaulting a hotel employee in his New York hotel suite, prosecutors said.
He was removed from an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport Saturday as it was to depart for Paris.
William Taylor, an attorney for Strauss-Kahn said his client's arraignment was delayed from Sunday after he agreed to forensic testing sought by police, CNN reported.
Prosecutors sought possible DNA evidence to support the assault allegations, The New York Times reported.
"Things like getting things from under the fingernails," a law enforcement official explained, "the classic things you get in association with a sex assault."
On Sunday, the IMF replaced the French politician as its chief, naming John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, as acting managing director.
Officials of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government said Strauss-Kahn is presumed innocent and the matter must work through the legal and court systems.
The leader of the Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, said she was "totally stupefied" by the charges, the Times reported.
Strauss-Kahn's wife, U.S.-born French television journalist Anne Sinclair, expressed disbelief at the charges against him.
On Sunday, Sinclair said in a statement, "I don't believe for a second the accusations leveled against my husband."
Others, the Times said, suggested Strauss-Kahn may be the victim of a "setup.