Spain: Jail time sought for ex-IMF boss in bank card probe

MADRID (AP) - Prosecutors are seeking a 4 ˆ½ year jail term for Rodrigo Rato, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, as part of a criminal investigation into corporate credit card misuse when he headed Spain's Bankia group.

The anticorruption prosecutors' office said Thursday Rato was one of 66 people accused in the investigation into the alleged use of "opaque" credit cards from the bank for irregular and undeclared expenses between 2003 and 2012.

Rato, 66, headed Bankia between 2010 and 2012. The bank had later to be bailed out.

IMF chief from 2004 to 2007, Rato was a leading figure in Spain's governing Popular Party and served as economy minister from 1996 to 2004. He is the subject of several investigations and has had his passport removed.

He denies wrongdoing.