On Wednesday, a Spanish national court judge ordered Rodrigo Rato, a
political ally of Spain’s prime minister and former head of the
International Monetary Fund, to appear in court to face criminal fraud
accusations over his recent stewardship of the giant mortgage lender
Bankia.
Bankia, which the government seized in early May, is at the center of
the financial storm that has led Spain to seek a European bailout of its
banks. But several other Spanish banks are also embroiled in court
cases, brought by politicians, shareholders and prosecutors, as well as
the government’s own bank overhaul agency.
The spate of lawsuits could further complicate efforts to clean up and
consolidate Spain’s banking sector, given that Madrid has yet to
complete the terms of the 100 billion euro ($125.3 billion) bailout that
euro currency union finance ministers agreed to last month.
“We are entering a new phase in this banking crisis, adding to the
questions of solvency the need to establish accountability for past
mistakes,” said José Luis de la Calle Sánchez, an independent lawyer who
specializes in banking matters.
The Bankia case in particular is highly politicized. Bankia has
longstanding ties to the governing Popular Party, and the case against
it was brought by one of Spain’s opposition parties, Union, Progress and
Democracy.
Among its accusations, the U.P.D. party wants to hold Mr. Rato and
others responsible for accounting irregularities that led Bankia to
restate its 2011 results after it was seized in May. Suddenly, a
reported profit of 309 million euros became a loss of almost 3 billion
euros, the largest in Spanish banking history.
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