The sentence handed down on Thursday can be appealed, but Mr. Rato and other former Bankia executives are also awaiting a ruling in a separate, broader case<br />that is centered on claims of mismanagement of the lender.<br />Mr. Rato was forced to resign in May 2012, just before Bankia was nationalized<br />and the Spanish government negotiated a European bailout to rescue the country’s banking sector.<br />MADRID — Rodrigo Rato, a former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was convicted<br />on Thursday on charges of misusing the funds of a Spanish bank that he led to near-collapse.<br />He was sentenced alongside 64 other Bankia directors and executives, who were accused of making unlawful credit card purchases<br />that totaled 12.5 million euros, or $13.2 million, over a decade.<br />Mr. Rato is the most prominent person to have been convicted since the rescue of the bank, Bankia, in 2012.<br />Once thought to be a potential Spanish prime minister, Mr. Rato had been finance minister in the conservative government of José María Aznar.
