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Former IMF chief sentenced in Spain


OverSword

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Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Rodrigo Rato was handed a jail sentence of four years and six months on Thursday for misusing funds when he was the boss of two Spanish banks.

Spain’s National Court, which deals with corruption and financial crime cases, said he had been found guilty of embezzlement when he headed up
Caja Madrid and Bankia, at a time when both groups were having difficulties.

The case prompted outrage in Spain, where it was uncovered at the height of a severe economic crisis that left many people struggling financially — made all the worse because Bankia later had to be nationalised and injected with more than €22bn in public funds.

Rato, who is also a former Spanish economy minister, remains at liberty pending a possible appeal.

He was on trial with 64 other former executives and board members at both banks accused of misusing €12m between 2003 and 2012 — sometimes splashing out at the height of Spain’s economic crisis.

They were accused of having paid for personal expenses with credit cards put at their disposal by both Caja Madrid and Bankia, without ever justifying them or declaring them to tax authorities. These expenses included petrol for their cars, supermarket shopping, holidays, luxury bags or parties in nightclubs.

According to the indictment, Rato maintained the "corrupt system" established by his predecessor Miguel Blesa when he took the reins of Caja Madrid in 2010. He then replicated the system when he took charge of Bankia, a group born in 2011 out of the merger of Caja Madrid with six other savings banks, prosecutors said.

Blesa was sentenced to six years in jail.

Rato had always denied any wrongdoing and said the credit cards were for discretionary spending as part of executives’ pay deal.

He told a court in October 2015 that everything "was completely legal".

Rato will not necessarily go directly to jail if he appeals against the ruling, just like the Spanish king’s brother-in-law Inaki Urdangarin who has been left free without posting bail after his sentence of six years for syphoning off millions of euros.

 

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Edited by OverSword
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Rob a bank and you can look forward to 15 to 30yrs in prison.  Equality before the Law?  lol

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43 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

Rob a bank and you can look forward to 15 to 30yrs in prison.  Equality before the Law?  lol

Hey - they still go to prison. "Country club" prison.

 

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