Ex-IMF head Rodrigo Rato paid a three-million-euro court bond Wednesday over allegations of lavish spending on company expenses while he was an executive at a bailed-out bank, a judicial source said. Rato provided a bank guarantee to cover his liability in the scandal, in which he and more than 80 other former bosses in the Bankia group are accused of spending millions on night-clubs, safaris and other luxuries using company credit cards.
After questioning Rato on October 16, judge Fernando Andreu of Spain's National Court ordered Rato to provide a guarantee of three million euros ($3.8 million) by Wednesday or have his assets frozen. Rato's bank guarantee ensured that amount was ring-fenced off, the source said. Former finance minister Rato is one of the most prominent figures in Spain's ruling Popular Party (PP). From 2004 to 2007 he was managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the global lender that played a leading role in tackling the eurozone finance crisis.
When questioned by the judge last week, Rato denied any wrongdoing and said the credit cards were for discretionary spending as part of the pay deal for executives in Caja Madrid, part of the Bankia group. The scandal has fuelled indignation in Spain, where one in four workers is unemployed. It has also embarrassed Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative PP ahead of a general election due in 2015 and sparked a string of high-profile resignations.
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