Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato must serve sentence for credit card misuse, Spanish court rules
The ‘black cards’ case sparked widespread anger in 2014, as Spain was recovering from years of recession, mass layoffs and a banking crisis partly triggered by Bankia's huge bailout
Madrid — Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Rodrigo Rato will have to serve a four-and-a-half year jail sentence for misusing company credit cards when he worked at state-owned lender Bankia, Spain's supreme court confirmed on Wednesday. Rato, who was economy minister in Spain and a prominent figure in the ruling People's Party (PP) before moving to the IMF, chaired Bankia for two years until just before its state bailout in 2012. In 2017, the court considered Rato responsible for overseeing the misuse of credit cards and said he could have reversed the practice that involved dozens of other executives and board members of Bankia. Rato had appealed against the ruling and denied any wrongdoing, arguing the expenses he accrued on the Bankia credit cards were legal. On Wednesday, the supreme court said in its 456-page ruling that it considered the sentence to be proportionate due to Rato's pre-eminent position at Bankia from whose assets he had "profited unfairly and allowe...
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