Ex-IMF chief Rato gets four-year jail term in Spain for tax crimes

MADRID: A Madrid court sentenced ex-IMF chief and Spanish economy minister Rodrigo Rato to more than four years in prison for tax crimes, money laundering and corruption, it said on Friday.

The sentence comes after the disgraced former heavyweight of Spain´s conservative Popular Party was jailed for four and a half years in 2018 for misusing funds while working at lender Bankia.

Prosecutors had alleged that Rato defrauded the Spanish tax office and lined his own pockets to the tune of 8.5 million euros between 2005 and 2015.

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.

Rato was sentenced to four years, nine months and one day in jail and fined more than two million euros ($2.1 million).