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Sentence in the 'Bankia case': the National Court acquits the 34 defendants in the trial for the bank's IPO

2020-09-29T12:57:55.057Z


The judges recall that the operation had the approval of the supervisorsRodrigo Rato, on the day of Bankia's IPO, in 2011.EFE The Criminal Chamber of the National Court has agreed to acquit the 34 defendants in the trial for the listing of Bankia, including the former president of the entity and the IMF, Rodrigo Rato, for crimes of fraud against investors and falsehood accountant. The ruling highlights that the IPO had the approval of all the supervisors —Banco de Es


Rodrigo Rato, on the day of Bankia's IPO, in 2011.EFE

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court has agreed to acquit the 34 defendants in the trial for the listing of Bankia, including the former president of the entity and the IMF, Rodrigo Rato, for crimes of fraud against investors and falsehood accountant.

The ruling highlights that the IPO had the approval of all the supervisors —Banco de España, CNMV, FROB and EBA—, that the prospectus contained “broad and accurate” financial and non-financial information and that only they exposed generic attitudes of the accused and not concrete acts.

There is an appeal against this sentence.

The National Court had to decide if the directors gave false information to the investors, as the Anticorruption Prosecutor believed.

The private and popular accusations affirmed that the defendants had also committed unfair administration.

Bankia went public in July 2011 after presenting the income statement for March of that year with a profit of 309 million.

In May 2012, once the Government prompted the departure of Rato and the arrival of José Ignacio Goirigolzarri to the presidency, the accounts were reformulated and Bankia presented losses of 2,979 million.

The entity claimed a total rescue of 24,424 million of public money, an item that has risen to 24,000 million after integrating BMN.

The experts of the Bank of Spain assured that the entity made up its accounts to go public and attract investors.

Until now, a company has never been pushed back on the market because its accounts are considered false.

The Hearing has taken almost a year to deliver the judgment of the trial that held 74 sessions where the 31 accused individuals and the three legal persons appeared: Bankia, BFA and Deloitte, as well as the 57 witnesses, four legal experts and 16 contracted party experts by defenses.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office requested eight and a half years in prison for Rodrigo Rato.

The request for penalties for the other three collaborators amounted to six years in the case of former Bankia executive director José Manuel Fernández Norniella, five years for former vice president José Luis Olivas and nine months for former CEO Vicente Verdú.

Carmen Launa, the Anticorruption prosecutor, announced as soon as the trial began, which hardened her request for punishment by incorporating a new crime.

Initially she only accused the four administrators of scamming investors for giving false information to those who bought Bankia shares when the entity debuted on the market.

But in her final speech requesting punishment, Launa decided to add the crime of accounting falsification for the 2011 accounts.


The Prosecutor's Office maintained that the reformulation served to clean up "a group whose spectacular loss, finally recognized in May 2012, came from before the establishment of the BFA group and the IPO."

The prosecutor assured in her conclusions that those responsible for the stock market debut concealed the deterioration of real estate assets "so as not to frustrate the operation."

Source: elparis

All business articles on 2020-09-29

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