Spain court seizes passport of ex-IMF chief Rato

MADRID: A Spanish judge on Tuesday withdrew the passport of former International Monetary Fund head Rodrigo Rato, who is under investigation for tax evasion, money laundering and concealing assets.
The judge ordered Rato, a former Spanish finance minister, to appear before a court once a month but said he could still travel within the European Union using his Spanish identity card.
He announced the decision after questioning Rato for nearly three hours as part of an investigation into his personal wealth.
Rato, 66, a former leading light of Spain's ruling conservative Popular Party, is the target of several judicial probes which have embarrassed the government ahead of a Dec 20 general election.
He was Spain's finance minister under ex-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar from 1996 to 2004 and headed the IMF from 2004 to 2007.
Rato is also being investigated for alleged fraud during his time as chief executive at Bankia, a Spanish lender bailed out by the government in 2012.
The near-collapse of Bankia almost brought down Spain's whole financial sector, which was bailed out later that year by international creditors for 41 billion euros (US$44 billion, RM192.57 billion).
He has also been questioned in court as part of a third probe into alleged spending sprees on company credit cards by him and other ex-managers of Bankia.
Rato has denied any wrongdoing in the cases. None of the investigations have yet gone to trial. – AFP