MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ex IMF managing director to prison for the second time on tax fraud and corruption

Rato also served as Spanish deputy prime minister and economy minister in Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party (PP), conservative government from 1996 to 2004

The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Spain's Conservative deputy prime minister, Rodrigo Rato was sentenced on Friday to four years and nine months in prison by the Madrid Provincial Court.

The 75-year-old was found guilty of tax fraud, money laundering, and corruption. Rato served as deputy prime minister and economy minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party (PP) government from 1996 to 2004, was convicted of hiding assets in bank accounts across the Bahamas, Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, among other locations. Investigators uncovered over some 15 million euros (16 million U.S. dollars) in undeclared funds and capital gains.

The court also found that Mr. Rato exploited a 2012 tax amnesty introduced by Mariano Rajoy's PP government, but failed to declare any of the companies he owned.

Spain's Anti-Corruption Office said that instead of regularizing his finances, Rato used the amnesty as a means to launder illegally obtained funds.

This marks Rato's second prison sentence, when he served two years in prison between 2018 and 2020. In February 2017, he was sentenced to four years and six months for using a secret corporate credit card for over 500 undeclared purchases and cash withdrawals while serving as CEO of the failed Bankia savings bank.