Spanish court sentences former IMF chief to more than four years in corruption case. news

Rodrigo Rato was found guilty of several crimes, including corruption and money laundering.

A Madrid court has sentenced former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Rodrigo Rato to more than four years in prison for tax crimes, money laundering and corruption.

Judges found Rato guilty of “three crimes against the Treasury, one crime of money laundering and one crime of corruption among persons,” the court said in a statement on Friday.

Rato, who had already spent two years in prison in a separate embezzlement case during his tenure as chairman of Spanish lender Bankia, has denied any wrongdoing during the nine-year investigation.

After a year-long trial, the court convicted Rato of crimes against Spanish tax authorities, as well as three counts of corruption and money laundering involving persons outside the public sector.

It sentenced him to four years, nine months and one day in prison.

A court spokesperson said that since the verdict can be challenged on appeal before the Supreme Court, Rato will not have to serve any jail sentence for the time being pending the final verdict.

Rato, 75, chaired the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia between 2010 and 2012. He spent eight years as Minister of Economy and Deputy Prime Minister in the conservative People’s Party (PP) government of José María Aznar between 1996 and 2004.

The court also ordered Ratto to pay a fine of more than two million euros ($2.08m), as well as 568,413 euros ($591,330) to tax authorities.

Ruto was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over the Bankia listing in 2012.