Spain’s high court has opened a fraud probe into Rodrigo Rato, the former International Monetary Fund chief who was until recently chairman of the part-nationalised lender at the heart of Spain’s banking crisis.
The investigation into Mr Rato, along with 32 other Bankiaexecutives, is likely to draw in some of the most prominent names in Spanish politics and business. Spain’s high court said yesterday that it had accepted a case brought by a small political party to establish whether Mr Rato and other executives were responsible for falsifying Bankia’s accounts and misleading investors during its stock market listing, which came ahead of the lender’s €23.5bn state rescue.
No specific charges have been made against Mr Rato or the other executives.