Rodrigo Rato was found guilty of several crimes, including corruption and money laundering.
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.
The judges found Rato guilty of “three offenses against the Treasury, one offense of money laundering and one offense of corruption between individuals,” the court said in a statement on Friday.
Rato, who had already spent two years in prison for a separate embezzlement case during his tenure as chairman of Spanish lender Bankia, has denied any wrongdoing during the nine-year investigation.
After a year-long trial, the court convicted Rato of three crimes against the Spanish tax authorities, as well as corruption involving people outside the public sector and money laundering.
It sentenced him to four years, nine months and one day in prison.
Since the decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court, Rato will not have to serve any prison time until a final verdict is reached, a court spokesman said.
Rato, 75, was chairman of the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and chairman of Bankia from 2010 to 2012. He also served as Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister in the conservative People’s Party (PP) government of Jose Maria Aznar for eight years between 1996 and 2004.
The court also ordered Rato to pay more than two million euros ($2.08 million) in fines and 568,413 euros ($591,330) to tax authorities.
Rato was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over Bankia’s listing in 2012.
