The pressure on the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy rose yesterday to complicate the situation of former Minister of Economy of the Popular Party (PP) and former IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato, who was arrested yesterday for several hours, and the Justice blocked all accounts under investigation for alleged money laundering.
In the midst of political turmoil and general outrage at a new case of corruption surrounding the PP, some 500 people gathered yesterday outside PP headquarters in Madrid to demand “Elections now”.
“Rato, thief, await you in prison”, “resignation” or “thieves” were some of the slogans chanted the demonstrators, convened by social networks. Among insults, Rato returned yesterday morning at his office in Madrid to attend a second police record after his brief arrest.
“Son of a …”, “thief”, “bastard,” shouted a group of neighbors to see Rato at the time, wearing a gray suit and white shirt, left his address the central Salamanca district of Madrid, guarded by police and amid great media expectation.
The registry office of the former economy minister and deputy prime minister José María Aznar (1996-2004) began on Thursday afternoon and continued until yesterday at 14 hours.
Upon returning home, Rato expressed serious. Your Photo ducking his head to enter the police car that had brought him to his office the previous day had already been around the world, leaving behind a dark image of the once-powerful conservative vice president.
Late yesterday, the trial judge, Antonio Serrano, ordered to block all current accounts, deposits, funds and loans whose ownership is de Rato, according to Spanish media.
The precipitous fall of former IMF chief came on Thursday when he was detained for eight hours to ensure their presence in the records held officers at his home and his office following a complaint lodged against him by Madrid Prosecution for offenses of fraud, money laundering and concealment of assets.
The prosecution acted after the Spanish press published last Tuesday, which Rato be one of the 705 people surveyed by the Unit prevention of money laundering, Seplac, all who had adhered to the tax amnesty opened in 2012 by the government of Rajoy, the current Spanish president and leader of the PP.
According to fiscal sources, the complaint was lodged urgently to “preserve evidence” and the duty judge ordered the arrest of Rato for it to be transferred custody of customs agents to their office for the same purpose. Rato was present in the first four hours of this inspection of his office, but just after twelve o’clock he was released.
The investigations into Rodrigo Rato focus on “a complex corporate and family network” that former minister and some of his partners would in tax havens. These companies have been created to avoid foreclosure by “Bankia case,” investigating irregularities in the management of this entity Rato presided and which led to the brink of bankruptcy.
Charged by cards “black”
Rato is also charged with the case of using “black card” Caja Madrid and Bankia, which did not pay tax to the Treasury for years.
The only information that Rato-a symbol of financial establishment and model neoliberal economic of PP had joined the controversial amnesty Rajoy, caused a political uproar in Spain. And the arrest of Rato did nothing but increase the scandal and pressure around the government of Rajoy, whom the opposition accused of having created a tax amnesty for friends of PP.
“The prime minister has been the facilitator of money to these people who were leaders of the PP laundering”, said yesterday the spokesman for the opposition (PSOE) Socialist Party, Antonio Hernando, whose political force recorded Rajoy asked to appear at the Congress of Deputies to explain.
“It is critical to understand that we are in the hands of a mob, the ministry of finance can not be a private farm of Mr. Montoro and the Popular Party,” said Pablo Iglesias meanwhile, the leader can, who asked the government of Rajoy to “take responsibility”.
The Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, rejected the request for hearing of Rajoy claiming for Rato is an investigation involving the former politician and banker personally. “We are facing a particular issue, not to facts relating to a position in the public sphere,” said the “number two” Rajoy.
The arrest of Rato was a blow to the PP, as was recognized by some of its leaders.
Meanwhile, sources close to the chief executive ensure that Rajoy is “quiet” before the research-because you think your government acts fulfilling the law against his former companion but also shows “concerned” about the consequences that this case may have at the electoral level, with municipal and regional elections on May 24 just around the corner.
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