Former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Rato has been released by Spanish police after being arrested over a tax and money laundering inquiry into his personal wealth.<br /><br /> Rato, who previously served as Spain’s deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, was held for seven hours while his home and office were searched on Thursday.<br /><br /> Investigators are looking into the alleged widespread misuse of company credit cards for personal expenses during Rato’s tenure as chairman of Spanish banking conglomerate Bankia, which was rescued by a government bail out in 2012. <br /><br /> Rato is one of several former managers accused of fraud as courts separately decide whether Bankia’s 2011 stock market flotation was flawed. He denies wrongdoing in both cases. <br /><br /> Rato was long a leading light of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right Popular Party (PP) before being implicated in two other judicial cases.<br /><br /> He is the highest-profile target yet in a series of legal probes
