Egyptian Banker Arrested on Sex Crime Allegation in New York

An Egyptian former bank chairman has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a maid in a luxury New York hotel less than two weeks after a former IMF chief was indicted on similar charges.

Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, 74, the former director of the Bank of Alexandria and now the chairman of the El-Mex Salines Company, was arrested on Monday after the maid accused him of sexually assaulting her, police said.

A police spokesman said the maid, "female, black, 44," was called to Omar's 10th-floor room at the luxury Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on Sunday evening to drop off tissues.

"Once inside the room, she was sexually abused," he said, without providing further details.

The New York Daily News quoted a police source as saying he "grabbed her breasts, groped her. He was grinding against her."

Omar is currently in police custody, and has been charged with sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, forcible touching and harassment, the police spokesman said.

The incident comes two weeks after the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, a prominent French political figure seen as a presidential contender, who has been accused of attacking and trying to rape a maid at another luxury hotel.

Strauss-Kahn has denied all seven charges against him.