MADRID - Former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato will have to serve a four-and-a-half year jail sentence for misusing company credit cards when he worked at state-owned lender Bankia, Spain’s Supreme Court confirmed on Wednesday.
Rato, who was economy minister in Spain and a prominent figure in the ruling People’s Party (PP) before moving to the IMF, chaired Bankia for two years until just before its state bailout in 2012.
In 2017, the court considered Rato responsible for overseeing the misuse of credit cards and said he could have reversed the practice that involved dozens of other executives and board members of Bankia.
Rato had appealed the ruling and denied any wrongdoing, arguing the expenses he accrued on the Bankia credit cards were legal.
The case is one of several high-level corruption investigations now coming to fruition and has been seen as a test of whether Spain’s rich and powerful are accountable before the law.
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