Disgraced ex-IMF chief Rato begins trial for tax evasion
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FORMER International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato, found guilty of embezzlement in 2018, faces a new trial in Madrid on charges of corruption, money laundering and tax dodging, with a prosecutor requesting a sentence of over 60 years in prison.
The trial, which kicked off soon after 0930 GMT on Friday (Dec 15), is expected to run until May 24, the Madrid court said, with the first hearings expected to be dominated by technicalities, such as which documents can be accepted.
Rato, 74, who chaired the IMF between 2004 and 2007, is not expected to testify until April, but is attending proceedings. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Wearing a dark blue suit and seated in the front row of the courtroom, Rato nodded his head in agreement when asked by the judge, Angela Acevedo, if he was aware of the charges and potential jail time he could face.
Rato had been sentenced to a 4½-year jail term over the misuse of Bankia credit cards to buy jewels, holidays and expensive clothes. He served two years in prison and the rest in partial liberty.
A former deputy prime minister in Spain’s conservative PP government between 1996 and 2004, he was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over the listing of Bankia in 2012.
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The current investigation into his personal wealth, started in 2015 when Spanish judges ordered a search of his Madrid home, follows an investigation into a kickback scheme.
He allegedly benefited from the scheme during Bankia’s advertising campaigns when he chaired the lender between 2010 and 2012, the prosecutor said.
Rato will ask for any evidence obtained through the search of his home to be annulled, a court document from his lawyers showed.
The prosecutor is seeking jail time of between 61 and 83 years for 11 alleged crimes against tax authorities.
Among these is transferring illegal funds back to Spain, in which he concealed 8.6 million euros, according to the prosecutor, without informing the tax authorities since 1999.
He also faces charges for falsifying documents.
For that purpose Rato used so-called shell companies for continuous financial investment activities through bank accounts in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco and Britain, which the prosecutor said, were taxable between 2005 and 2015.
Analysis of the documents showed an unjustified increase of more than 15.6 million euros in his wealth during this period, the prosecutor added. REUTERS
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