The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has requested this Friday 63 years in prison for Rodrigo Rato, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and vice president of the Government with José María Aznar (PP), during the oral hearing held in the Madrid Court against the former politician for the alleged illicit origin of his fortune. The public ministry, which has also claimed a fine of 42 million for him, communicated to the court this morning its final conclusions, where it attributes a total of 11 tax crimes to the former popular leader, another of money laundering and another of corruption between individuals. Prosecutor Elena Lorente thus minimally reduces her initial request, which amounted to 70 years in prison and included two other crimes (punishable insolvency and document falsification), which have been withdrawn.
In its definitive conclusions document, to which EL PAÍS had access, Anticorrupción emphasizes that the former PP politician, while boasting of a “lawful way of life” in the face of public opinion and “apparent transparency about his tax behavior before the Spanish Treasury”, “carried out underhanded management of companies whose primary purpose has been tax evasion”, “both in Spain and abroad”. “Thus, since at least 1999 and until 2015, he has managed, on the one hand, an enormous asset abroad, with constant investments and reinvestments, unknown to the public treasury, and, on the other hand, he has evaded paying taxes. for their professional services, sheltering behind a network of interrelated companies,” specifies the public ministry.
“The accused has sought, on purpose and with fraudulent intent, the non-payment of taxes, for which he has used a national and international corporate network managed by him,” emphasizes the Prosecutor’s Office, which during the trial has tried to demonstrate that Rato concocted a complex business structure with a multitude of tentacles to blur the outline of a “large amount of money and financial assets.” Also, that he carried out “financial investment activities through a multitude of bank accounts opened in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Monaco, among other places.” Furthermore, Anticorruption adds that, during his time as president of Caja Madrid and Bankia, the former vice president of the Executive charged illegal “commissions” for the awarding of advertising contracts.
In addition to the high prison sentences, Anti-Corruption requests that Rato be fined 42.44 million euros – 19.94 million for the tax crimes; 20 million for money laundering; and 2.5 million for corruption between individuals. Likewise, the Prosecutor’s Office proposes that the former Minister of Economy and Finance, whom the PP praised as a symbol of the Spanish “economic miracle” that the conservatives boasted about, pay compensation to the Treasury of 7.7 million euros, which he would have to face jointly with other defendants.
The trial against Rodrigo Rato, who is accompanied by another dozen people on the bench, is in its final phase. The oral hearing began last December. And, after months of interrogating witnesses and experts, the accused began to testify on April 10. The first to do so was the former managing director of the IMF, the main defendant, who described the accusations against him as “fabulations”, in addition to harshly attacking the prosecutor, the State Attorney’s Office and the Treasury technicians. . “This case is the search for the lost treasure,” said the former politician ironically, who asks for his total absolution.
After this Thursday’s session, the oral hearing now goes into a break. The trial will resume on May 6, when the parties will begin to present their final reports (this phase is expected to last several days). Once everyone is done, the accused will be able to use their right to the last word.
Other key figures
The Prosecutor’s Office not only puts Rato in the spotlight. He accuses 12 other individuals and three legal entities. Among them is the lawyer Domingo Plazas, whom Anticorruption considers the former vice president’s tax advisor, although both deny it. According to what the former politician said at the trial, he alone entrusted Plaza’s office with the 2012 tax regularization, which he activated to benefit from the tax amnesty promoted by the Government of Mariano Rajoy. For Plazas, prosecutor Elena Lorente asks for 52 and a half years in prison for 11 tax crimes (between 2004 and 2015), money laundering and business corruption.
Anti-corruption also maintains the accusation against the close circle of the former PP leader. He demands three years in prison for Teresa Arellano, who was his secretary for decades, and for José Manuel Fernández Norniella, who was Rato’s trusted man during his time in the Government and in Bankia. He attributes corruption in business to both. For the same crime, the public ministry requests four years in prison for Alberto Portuondo, whom it considers the front man of the former Minister of Economy. The document of conclusions also contemplates another five years of imprisonment for the ex-brother-in-law of the former politician, Santiago Alarcó, for the crime of money laundering, understanding that he managed Rato’s fortune abroad.