News Desk

According to a report by the foreign news agency Reuters, the former head of the IMF, Rodrigo Rato, has been sentenced after a lengthy one-year trial in a case involving Spanish tax authorities. He was convicted of three crimes related to corruption and money laundering with individuals outside the public sector. For these offenses, Rato was sentenced to 4 years, 9 months, and one day in prison.

The court also ordered Rato to pay 2.08 million dollars and 568,413 euros to the tax authorities. A court spokesperson noted that the decision could be challenged in the Supreme Court, and until a final ruling, Rato would not be sent to jail.

On the other hand, Rato’s lawyer stated that the former IMF chief had rejected any allegations of misconduct during a nine-year investigation, calling the decision opaque and indicating that an appeal would be filed.

The report further mentioned that Rato had already served a two-year prison sentence in connection with another case involving embezzlement during his tenure as chairman of Spain’s Bankia.

Rato, 75, served as IMF Managing Director from 2004 to 2007 and as Bankia’s chairman from 2010 to 2012. In 2017, he was sentenced to two years in prison for misusing Bankia’s credit cards to buy jewelry, take vacations, and purchase expensive clothes.

Prosecutors had requested a 63-year sentence for Rato in the recent corruption case, based on 11 charges.

In a separate legal matter, Rato’s lawyer, Maria Mesó, had requested the court to dismiss the charges against him last year, arguing that his rights were violated during a 2015 search of his home, and that evidence gathered in the raid should be dismissed.

Rato was acquitted in 2012 in a fraud case related to Bankia’s listing during his tenure as Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister under the conservative People’s Party (PP) government from 1996 to 2004.