The trial is pending sentencing after six months of oral hearing
MADRID, 17 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former vice president Rodrigo Rato referred this Friday, before the court, which has tried him for the alleged illicit increase of his assets, to the investigation opened in a court in Tarragona against the office founded by the former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro, Economic Team , to point out that from what is known about this secret case thanks to the press, he has been able to learn that he has been subjected to this procedure due to efforts that would have been carried out within the Ministry when it was directed by Montoro.
This was stated by the former minister when he gave the last word in what was the last session of the trial that was held in the Provincial Court of Madrid over six months and in 56 sessions, and which has been seen for sentencing this Friday.
The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for whom the Public Ministry is requesting 63 years in prison for tax crimes, money laundering and corruption between individuals, has accused prosecutor Elena Lorente of presenting facts against him “artificially.” complex” as the basis for an “inadmissible” accusation.
For Rato, who has fully read his statement so as not to deviate from the message even one iota, his defense has been effective by presenting consistent arguments and evidence, and he considers that in this way he has exposed “the house of cards manufactured” by both the Police as well as by the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office and the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF), dependent on the Tax Agency.
After this, he has focused on the proceedings carried out by a Tarragona court relating to that firm that was founded by Montoro, to indicate that, as his lawyer said in her report, what has come to light thanks to what was published by ‘El Periódico of Spain’, allows us to know “why” they are in this trial “and the very strange circumstances that have surrounded this case from the beginning.”
Then, the former minister has listed a series of communications following a chronological order and has asserted that his “astonishment and perplexity” for this reason finds an explanation in them.
“We are here because on January 21, 2015, the Chief of Staff of the Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, Mr. Felipe Martínez Rico, wrote the following email to Cristóbal Montoro: Santiago (Menéndez), director of the Tax Agency at the time, He wants to discuss Rato’s tax situation with you. He now has indications that he is proceeding with the collection of assets. He will bring prepared information, but it is possible that the situation will lead to the need for an entry and registration. He can comment on it on Thursday after the steering committee. or after the Council of Ministers on Friday, as you prefer,” Rato read in court.
After that first communication, Rato has read a second one dated February 9, 2015, also attributed to Martínez Rico. “Once again, I wrote this other email to the Minister of Finance. Rodrigo Rato did present the declaration. In declaration 720 we have asked the Tax Agency for the information and we are going to review what we had prepared and give it to you, in case there are any errors to correct,” Rato continued.
Then, he referred to statements made on April 4, 2015 by the then Minister of Justice Rafael Catalá to a news agency in which, he claims, he said that Rodrigo Rato had accepted the tax regularization. He has clarified that this was secret information that he could only know through the Minister of Finance.
“We are here,” he added, “because on April 16, 2015, the same day I was arrested and my house and office were searched, after notifying the media, once again Felipe Martínez Rico, Chief of Staff from Minister Montoro, writes another email in which he assures that the tax amnesty has served as a decoy for the Tax Agency to focus investigations of tax fraud and that the subsequent investigation may even lead to accusations of tax crimes.
After this, Rato has indicated that these communications are the reason why he is sitting in the dock. “Both I and my family have been subjected to a very painful and very long procedure,” he lamented, adding that “anyone who crossed his path has also been made to suffer” by the rest of the defendants.
