Canada Global (Web News) A Madrid court on Friday sentenced former IMF chief and Spanish economy minister Rodrigo Rato to over four years in prison for tax crimes, money laundering, and corruption.
This new sentence follows Rato’s 2018 conviction, where he was given a four-and-a-half-year term for misappropriating funds during his time at a bank.
Prosecutors accused Rato of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities and embezzling 8.5 million euros between 2005 and 2015.
The court found him guilty of three tax-related offenses, one count of money laundering, and one count of corruption, according to a statement.
Rato was sentenced to four years, nine months, and one day in prison, along with a fine of over two million euros ($2.1 million). He has the option to appeal the decision at Spain’s Supreme Court.
Rato served eight years as Spain’s economy minister and deputy prime minister under conservative leader José María Aznar before becoming the head of the International Monetary Fund from 2004 to 2007.
He later led Spanish bank Bankia, where he used company credit cards for personal expenses between 2010 and 2012, which led to his 2018 prison sentence. He was later transferred to a semi-open prison in late 2020.
The Bankia scandal, which surfaced during a severe economic crisis, angered many Spaniards, especially after the government spent 22 billion euros on a bailout for the struggling bank, which became a symbol of financial mismanagement.
