Former IMF
chief Rodrigo Rato has been detained by police following a search of his home
in Madrid. He is already under investigation for alleged fraud and misusing
company credit cards.
Deutsche Welle, 16 April 2015
Former
International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Rodrigo Rato was escorted from his
apartment in Madrid's wealthy Salamanca neighborhood on Thursday night and
driven off in an unmarked police car.
Officials
spent three hours searching the property as part of an investigation into tax
paid on the 66-year-old's personal wealth, Spain's state prosecutor said.
Rato, a
former Spanish economy minister with the ruling conservative Popular Party
(PP), served as head the IMF from 2004 to 2007.
Rato is
already under investigation for alleged fraud, embezzlement and forgery in his
former role as chief executive of Spanish bank Bankia, which came close to collapse in 2012 and had to be bailed out by Spanish authorities for 24 billion
euros ($26 billion).
He has also
been questioned in court as part of a separate investigation into widespread
misuse of corporate credit cards during his time at Bankia - a scandal that led
to his expulsion from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's PP last October.
Rato has
denied wrongdoing in both these cases.
News of the
latest investigation into Rato comes ahead of regional and local elections next
month, and a general election in December.
nm/bw (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)
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