Rato points to former Minister Montoro as the origin of the procedure for which the Prosecutor’s Office asks him for 63 years in prison

The trial is pending sentencing after six months of oral hearing

17 ()

The former vice president of the Government Rodrigo Rato referred this Friday, before the court that 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, Team Economic, to point out that from what is known about this secret cause 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 read his statement in its entirety 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 Prosecutor’s Office and , as well as by 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.

CATALÁ AND THE TAX AMNESTY

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 long procedure,” he lamented, adding that “anyone who crossed” his path has also been made to suffer, for the rest of the defendants.

THE LATEST REPORTS

Before the last word, which some of the defendants have used to thank the court for, for example, allowing them to be absent from the plenary session to attend to their jobs, the four pending reports have taken place. In all of them an acquittal has been requested.

Thus, the defense of the former general secretary of Telefónica Ramiro Sánchez de Lerín has pointed out that the multinational complied with the norm by hiring Rato as a consultant, since it declared those payments to the Treasury and the contracted macro reports existed.

He has emphasized that for the payer –Telefónica– “there was a rule” which was to comply with the Tax Agency’s model 347, which is what Sánchez de Lerín had to do, “and that is exactly what he did.” “That is, he was in the permitted risk, he was engaging in permitted behavior and he did not engage in non-permitted behavior,” he added.

In this sense, he explained that the contract, signed with the long-term company called Kradonara, was made “as always” and as it was done with “other advisors.” And regarding the fact of signing with a company and not with a natural person, he explained that “no rule prevents a natural person from exercising their professional activity through a company.”

Along the way, he has cited sentences such as those related to footballers has to give accounts to the Treasury”, but not the payer.

Thus, he has stressed that neither Adidas, nor Danone or Real Madrid have gone to court proceedings as defendants in those cases, something that has happened in the case of Telefónica and its former general secretary.

THE “WHIM” OF THE PROSECUTOR WITH LAWYER PLACES

For its part, the defense of the Plazas Abogados firm, which carried out Rato’s tax regularization in 2012 and several complementary ones, has accused the prosecutor of keeping the firm in the case out of a “whim” for the tax crimes of 2013, 2014 and 2015. without having proof.

“This vacuum violates the rights of all defendants, including legal entities, (…) there is a breach of the accusatory principle, since it has already been indicated that Plazas Abogados does not know the facts for which it is accused,” he pointed out.

For its part, the defense of the advertising agencies Publicís and Zenith Media, which the prosecutor accuses of having paid irregular commissions that ended up in the hands of Rato in order to be awarded the advertising for the launch of the Bankia brand, has put the focus on the fact that after so many sessions they still do not know what crime they can be accused of.

“There is no evidence of charges against these legal entities, not a single line has been dedicated, (…) not a single thought in the form of a report” about them, he explained, and then pointed out that the court “has its hands tied.” to condemn” their constituents because, to do so, “would violate the principle of congruence” and “would imply driving the last nail into the coffin of the helplessness” they suffer.

The Telefónica lawyer has maintained the same argument, explaining that “there is no accusation” and therefore “no demand for civil liability” for them.