Spain court sentences former IMF director to prison for corruption crimes – JURIST
The Provincial Court of Madrid on Friday sentenced Spanish politician and former Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Rato to four years, nine months, and one day in prison for corruption and money laundering crimes. The verdict concludes a criminal investigation that began in 2015, prompted by an alert from the Anti-Fraud Office regarding irregularities in Rato’s asset declarations.
In its ruling, the court stated that Rato used a complex process to hide the origins of his fortune from the Treasury and found him guilty of committing tax fraud, money laundering, and corruption between individuals when he served as director of the IMF. The court found that his actions violated articles 286 bis, 301, and 305 of Spain’s Criminal Code.
The court highlighted that Rato managed to hide an enormous increase in his fortune from the Public Treasury by creating a network of interrelated companies. The court explained that Rato hid an increase in his assets in 2006 when he was the director of the IMF by failing to submit correct income declarations to the Public Treasury. The court added that Rato also defrauded the Public Treasury in 2013 and 2014 by hiding the fees he had received for consultancy services that were provided by companies he owned. In addition to the prison sentence, the Spanish court imposed fines of over two million euros on Rato.
The Anti-Corruption Office of Spain requested a 63-year imprisonment sentence for the Spanish politician. However, the Provincial Court decided to reduce the sentence for corruption between individuals due to the significant delays in the legal proceedings, which have lasted over nine years. Nevertheless, Friday’s ruling against Rato is not final, as he still has the option to appeal the court’s decision to the Spanish Supreme Court.
The Provincial Court convicted two defendants alongside Rato for their role in committing tax offenses and money laundering. The first defendant, Domingo Plazas, was the lawyer and administrator of one of Rato’s companies through which he transferred funds to Spain. Plazas was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The second defendant received a prison sentence of three months and one day.
Rodrigo Rato is a Spanish politician and businessman who served as the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Business in 1996 and as the managing director of the IMF from 2004 to 2007. This is not the first time he has been involved in a corruption case, as he was previously one of the defendants responsible for the financial collapse of Bankia, one of Spain’s largest banks. In 2018, Spain’s High Court sentenced him to four and a half years in prison for misusing the credit cards of the Spanish bank for personal expenses. This was part of a massive corruption scandal that implicated multiple other bankers and politicians.
