Spain: Jail time sought for ex-IMF boss in bank card probe
January 14, 2016 at 10:30 a.m.
| Updated January 14, 2016 at 10:45 a.m.
by
Associated Press
FILE - In this April 20, 2015 file photo, Spain's former Finance Minister and International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato arrives at his apartment in Madrid, Spain. Prosecutors are seeking a 4 and a half year jail term for ex-IMF chief, Rodrigo Rato in a criminal investigation into corporate credit card misuse by bank executives when he headed Spain’s Bankia group. The anticorruption prosecutors’ office said Thursday Jan. 14, 2016 that Rato was one of 66 people accused in the National Court investigation into the alleged use of "opaque" credit cards from the bank for irregular and undeclared expenses between 2003 and 2012. The bank had later to be bailed out. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)
MADRID (AP) - Prosecutors are seeking a 4 ½ year jail term for Rodrigo Rato, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, as part of a criminal investigation into corporate credit card misuse when he headed Spain's Bankia group.
The anticorruption prosecutors' office said Thursday Rato was one of 66 people accused in the investigation into the alleged use of "opaque" credit cards from the bank for irregular and undeclared expenses between 2003 and 2012.
Rato, 66, headed Bankia between 2010 and 2012. The bank had later to be bailed out.
IMF chief from 2004 to 2007, Rato was a leading figure in Spain's governing Popular Party and served as economy minister from 1996 to 2004. He is the subject of several investigations and has had his passport removed.
