Ex-IMF chief Rato sentenced to new jail time period over corruption

By Jesús Aguado

MADRID (Reuters) -A Madrid courtroom has sentenced former Worldwide Financial Fund chief Rodrigo Rato to nearly 5 years in jail for corruption offences, the courtroom stated on Friday.

Rato, who has denied any wrongdoing all through a nine-year probe, stated in an announcement despatched to Reuters via the regulation agency Baker McKenzie that the ruling was “unfair” and that he would attraction.

Rato had already spent two years in jail over a separate embezzlement case throughout his tenure as chairman of Spanish lender Bankia.

Following a year-long trial, the courtroom convicted Rato on three counts of offences in opposition to Spanish tax authorities, in addition to corruption involving people exterior the general public sector, and cash laundering. It sentenced him to 4 years, 9 months and a day in jail.

For the reason that resolution could be challenged on attraction earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, Rato won’t need to serve any jail time for now till there’s a remaining ruling, a courtroom spokesperson stated.

Rato, 75, who chaired the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia between 2010 and 2012, beforehand spent two years in jail after being convicted in 2017 over the misuse of Bankia bank cards to purchase jewels, holidays and costly garments.

Within the more moderen corruption case, prosecutors had requested a complete jail sentence of 63 years for the 11 prices in opposition to him.

Final 12 months, Rato’s lawyer Maria Masso, Baker McKenzie, had requested the courtroom to dismiss the costs, arguing that Rato’s rights had been violated throughout a 2015 search of his residence, so proof obtained within the raid needs to be annulled.

The courtroom additionally ordered Rato to pay fines value greater than two million euros ($2.08 million), in addition to 568,413 euros to tax authorities.

Rato, who served as deputy prime minister within the conservative Folks’s Get together (PP) authorities between 1996 and 2004, was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over the itemizing of Bankia in 2012.

($1 = 0.9625 euros)