According to a report by international news agency Reuters, the former head of the IMF has been sentenced after a lengthy one-year trial in a case involving Spanish tax authorities.

Rodrigo Rato, the former IMF chief, was convicted on three charges related to corruption and money laundering involving individuals outside the public sector. For these crimes, he was sentenced to 4 years, 9 months, and one day in prison.

The court also ordered Rato to pay 2.08 million dollars along with 568,413 euros to the tax authorities.

A court spokesperson stated that the ruling could be challenged in the Supreme Court, and Rato will not be sent to prison until a final decision is made.

On the other hand, Rato’s lawyer asserted that during the 9-year investigation, Rato denied any wrongdoing and described the decision as opaque, stating that an appeal would be filed.

It was also reported that Rato, who previously served as Chairman of Spain’s Bankia, has already served a two-year prison sentence in a separate embezzlement case.

The 75-year-old Rato, who led the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia from 2010 to 2012, was sentenced in 2017 for misusing Bankia’s credit cards to purchase jewelry, vacations, and expensive clothes.

Prosecutors in the recent corruption case had requested a 63-year prison sentence on 11 charges.

Rato’s lawyer, Maria Mesas, previously asked the court to dismiss the charges against her client, arguing that Rato’s rights were violated during a 2015 search of his home and that the evidence obtained should be rejected.

Rodrigo Rato, who served as Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister from 1996 to 2004 under the conservative People’s Party (PP), was acquitted by the court in 2012 in another fraud case related to Bankia’s listing.