Rodrigo Rato has been convicted of multiple crimes including corruption and money laundering.
A Madrid court has sentenced former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato to more than four years in prison on charges of tax crimes, money laundering and corruption.
The judges found Rato guilty of “three crimes against the treasury, one crime of money laundering and one crime of corruption among individuals,” the court said in a statement on Friday.
Rato, who spent two years in prison in a separate embezzlement case while he was chairman of Spanish bank Bankia, has denied any wrongdoing throughout the nine-year investigation.
After a year-long trial, the court found Rato guilty of three counts of crimes against the Spanish tax authorities, as well as corruption involving individuals outside the public sector and money laundering.
He was sentenced to four years, nine months and one day in prison.
A court spokesman said that since the decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court, Rato will not have to serve any prison time for now until a final ruling is made.
Rato, 75, headed the International Monetary Fund from 2004 to 2007 and Bankia from 2010 to 2012. He also spent eight years in various roles as economy minister and deputy prime minister in the conservative People’s Party government of Jose Maria Aznar between 1996 and 2004.
The court also ordered Rato to pay fines of more than 2 million euros ($2.08 million), as well as 568,413 euros ($591,330) to tax authorities.
Rato was acquitted in a separate fraud trial over the listing of Bankia in 2012.
