Ex-IMF chief Rato sentenced to 4 years, 9 months in prison over corruption case

MADRID (Reuters) – A Madrid court has sentenced former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato to four years, nine months and a day in prison for various crimes related to corruption, the court said in a statement on Friday.

Rato, who already spent two years in prison over a separate embezzlement case related to his tenure as chairman of Spanish lender Bankia, has denied any wrongdoing throughout the nine-year probe.

Following a year-long trial, the court convicted Rato on three counts of offences against Spanish tax authorities, as well as money laundering and private-to-private corruption.

As the decision can be appealed before the Supreme Court, Rato will not have to serve any prison time for now until there is a final ruling, a court spokesperson said.

Rato, who chaired the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia between 2010 and 2012, previously spent two years in prison after being convicted in 2018 over the misuse of Bankia credit cards to buy jewels, holidays and expensive clothes.