Ex-International Monetary Fund director and Bankia chair arrested

FORMER government vice-president for the economy and ex-chairman of Bankia Rodrigo Rato has been arrested and charged with fraud and money-laundering.

He was seen being placed in a police car just after 20.00hrs yesterday (Thursday) on the C/ Castelló in Madrid, outside his office.

Raids were carried out on the main residence of the accused in the up-market Salamanca neighbourhood of the capital.

Police cordoned off the street as they carried out stringent searches and removed five boxes of material for closer examination.

The tax collection authorities were behind the arrest of Rato, 66, who is the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (FMI) as well as minister of the economy during the reign of former PP president José María Aznar, which ended in 2004.

An arrest warrant means he will not have to appear before a judge, but pending further inquiries he is now said to have been released with charges.

His office in Madrid was searched, as was a solicitors' firm on the luxury Sotogrande urbanisation in San Roque (Cádiz) in southern Spain.

Rato has not denied that he took party in president Mariano Rajoy's 'tax amnesty' of 2012, in which anyone who had withheld assets from the authorities was given a 'window' to declare it, pay the outstanding dues, and avoid fines or further legal action.

But the tax collection department found 'contradictions' in the declarations made both during the amnesty and the following year, leading to his being placed on their list of money-laundering suspects.

Rato is already facing charges for 'irregularities' in the flotation of Bankia on the stock market.

He is also under investigation for the so-called 'Black Cards' racket, whereby former top-flight bosses of Caja Madrid – which merged with Bancaja to form Bankia after being bailed out by the State – were found to have used their work credit cards for personal expenses to enable them to be offset against their income tax, resulting in an artificially low bill.

He refused to comment when quizzed by reporters during his arrest, except to deny he had ever owned any companies in tax havens such as the Virgin Islands or Gibraltar, as the charges claim.

Rato is one of 705 names on the list of suspected money-laundering offences compiled by the anti-fraud agency SEPBLAC.

The list features politicians, former politicians, ambassadors, judges and even prosecutors.