Spain court sentences ex-IMF chief to more than four years over corruption 

A Madrid court has sentenced former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Rodrigo Rato to more than four years in prison for tax crimes, money laundering and corruption.

Judges found Rato guilty of “three offences against the Treasury, one offence of money laundering and one offence of corruption between individuals”, the court said in a statement on Friday.

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

Following a yearlong trial, the court convicted Rato on three counts of offences against Spanish tax authorities, as well as corruption involving individuals outside the public sector, and money laundering.

It sentenced him to four years, nine months and a day in prison.

Since the decision can be challenged on appeal 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, 75, chaired the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia between 2010 and 2012. He also spent eight years variously serving as economy minister and deputy prime minister in the conservative People’s Party (PP) government of Jose Maria Aznar between 1996 and 2004.

The court also ordered Rato to pay fines of more than two million euros ($2.08m), as well as 568,413 euros ($591,330) to tax authorities.

Rato was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over the listing of Bankia in 2012.