Spain court confirms jail term for ex-IMF chief Rato

Yahoo – AFP, Marianne BARRIAUX, October 3, 2018

The case involving former IMF head Rodrigo Rato outraged Spaniards who
endured a severe economic crisis (AFP Photo/DANI POZO)

Madrid (AFP) - Spain's Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato's jail sentence of four years and six months for misusing funds in a case that sparked outrage when it was uncovered at the height of the country's economic crisis.

In February 2017, Rato was found guilty by the Madrid-based National Court of paying for personal expenses with credit cards put at his disposal when he was the boss of Caja Madrid and Bankia, at a time when both banks were in difficulty.

The 69-year-old, who is also a former Spanish economy minister, had since then been free on bail pending an appeal.

The case shocked Spain, where it was uncovered at the height of the crisis that left many people struggling financially. Bankia later had to be nationalised.

Far-left party Podemos welcomed the court ruling, saying Spaniards had long demanded justice "for those who robbed public money, for those who ripped off thousands of families, for those who burdened us with debt for life".

"We applaud the fact that some of those responsible, like Rodrigo Rato, get at least part of what they deserve," it said in a tweet.

Misuse of 12 million euros

Rato was tried with 64 other former executives and board members at both banks accused of misusing a total of 12 million euros ($13.8 million) between 2003 and 2012 in personal expenses.

Those included petrol for their cars, supermarket shopping, pricey holidays, luxury bags or parties in nightclubs.

One of the executives, Miguel Blesa -- Rato's predecessor at Caja Madrid -- was sentenced to six years in jail.

In July 2017, Blesa was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest at a private hunting estate in southern Spain.

An autopsy ruled it was suicide.

Second trial

The Supreme Court will now notify the National Court of its decision, which will then summon Rato and give him a deadline -- usually 10 to 15 days -- to allow him to pick a prison and go there voluntarily.

Authorities will issue an arrest warrant against him if he does not.

Rato was economy minister and deputy prime minister in the conservative government of Jose Maria Aznar from 1996 to 2004, before going on to head up the International Monetary Fund until 2007.

His subsequent career as a banker in Spain was short-lived -- from 2010 to 2012. But apart from the case of the undeclared credit cards, it also led to another banking scandal considered the country's biggest.

Thousands of small-scale investors lost their money after they were persuaded to convert their savings to shares ahead of the flotation of Bankia in 2011, with Rato at the reins.

Less than a year later, he resigned as it became known that Bankia was in dire straits.

The state injected billions of euros but faced with the scale of Bankia's losses and trouble in other banks, it asked the European Union for a bailout for the entire banking sector and eventually received 41 billion euros.

Rato is due to stand trial over the case, accused of falsifying information about Bankia's finances to encourage investors to buy into its stock market listing.

He is the third former IMF chief to get into trouble with the law.

His successor Dominique Strauss-Kahn was tried in 2015 on pimping charges in a lurid sex scandal, and was acquitted.

And Christine Lagarde, who took over from Strauss-Kahn and is the current IMF chief, was found guilty of negligence over a state payout to a tycoon when she was French finance minister, though she received no penalty.