Former IMF Chief and Dozens of Former Bank Execs Just Got Sentenced to

Wolf Street ^ | 23 February 2017 | Don Quijones

[Lorianne]

The unimaginable just happened in Spain: two former bank CEOs, Miguel Blesa (CEO of Caja Madrid) and Rodrigo Rato (CEO of Bankia) were just awarded prison sentences of six years and four-and-a-half years, respectively, for misappropriation of company funds.

Rato was also Managing Director of the IMF from 2004 to 2007. He was succeeded by another luminary, Dominique Strauss Kahn.

Now, the question on everyone’s mind is will Blesa and Rato actually serve the sentence (more on that later).

Dozens more former Caja Madrid senior executives, most of whom are closely connected to either, or both, of the country’s two main political parties and/or unions also face three to six years in prison. They were found guilty by Spain’s National High Court of misusing company credit cards. Those cards drained money directly from the scarce funds of Caja Madrid, which at the height of Spain’s banking crisis was merged with six other failed savings banks into Bankia, which shortly thereafter collapsed and ended up receiving the biggest bail out in Spanish history, costing taxpayers over €20 billion, to date.

[Blue Collar Christian]

I imagine they have some sort of club fed like here. These guys would never survive real prison.

[proxy_user]

They actually stole money and got caught.

This is very different from making improper loans and taking unsuitable risks in the course of normal business.

[MarvinStinson]

bmp

[PGalt]

HOORAY Spain’s National High Court! Good article. Thanks for posting.