Ex-IMF chief Rato to stand trial for misusing bank funds

Rodrigo Rato, a former chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is to stand trial for misusing funds when he was head of a bailed-out Spanish bank, a court in Madrid said today.
One time Spanish finance minister Rato is one of 66 accused in a scandal that allegedly saw executives and board members at Caja Madrid and Bankia - the group whose near-collapse sparked an EU bailout of Spain's financial sector - spend around 12 million euros on themselves between 2003 and 2012.
No date has been fixed for the trial of Rato and his co-defendants who allegedly benefited from undeclared credit cards for personal expenses between 1999 and 2012 at Caja Madrid, which merged with six other savings banks to create Bankia.

According to media reports, the group used the accounts for expenses ranging from safari trips to buying jewelry.
Rato is accused of racking up 99,000 rpt 99,000 euros on his account.
Close to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Rato was forced to quit the ruling Popular Party after the scandal broke in January of last year.