Spanish probe: Authorities search former IMF chief’s home

Already being investigated for alleged fraud during time at Bankia.

MADRID: Spanish tax authorities carried out new searches of former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato’s Madrid offices in a money-laundering probe as the country questioned whether he had been made a scapegoat in the ruling Popular Party’s anti-corruption drive.

Rato is already being investigated for alleged fraud during his time as chief executive at Bankia, a Spanish bank which needed to be bailed out by the government.

The 66-year-old said that he was “actively cooperating with investigators”. Spain’s state prosecutor ordered the searches as part of a probe into suspected money laundering, fraud and asset-stripping, according to a source.

The judge in charge of the investigation also ordered Rato’s bank accounts to be frozen, said a judicial source.

Spanish media reported the investigation could be linked to an alleged payment of $6.6 million which the investment bank Lazard made to Rato in 2011, several years after he worked for the bank as an adviser. On Thursday, the police escorted Rato out of his apartment building in an upscale neighbourhood in central Madrid after searching his flat for nearly four hours. His offices were also searched.

Rato, who headed the IMF between 2004 and 2007, is a former senior member of Spain’s conservative Popular Party and also served as finance minister in Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s government.

Many in Spain were asking whether Rato was being singled out by current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has been criticised for failing to crackdown on corruption.

Opinion polls show the PP is losing support ahead of regional elections on May 24, with general elections looming before the end of the year.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2015.

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