The Supreme Court of Spain on Wednesday confirmed the conviction and prison term of former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato for misusing funds, Reuters reported. Rato will be jailed for four-and-a-half years and he is expected to enter prison soon.
Rato misused company credit cards when he worked with the state-owned bank Bankia, which he led between December 2010 and May 2012. Earlier, he was Spain’s economy minister and before that he served as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund from 2004 to 2007.
He was found guilty of the crime in February 2017 but had appealed against the ruling. He told the court that the expenses he made on the credit cards were legal.
Christine Lagarde, the current managing director of the IMF, escaped punishment even though a French court found her guilty in a payout case in 2016. Her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned from his position in 2011 after facing sexual assault charges that were later dropped.
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