Spanish tax office agents on Thursday searched the Madrid home of Rodrigo Rato, a former IMF head and ex-economy minister with Spain's ruling conservative party, who has already been charged in two corruption cases.
"The search is being carried out in response to a court order at the request of prosecutors and we can not give more information at the moment," the spokesman told AFP. He said he could not give the reason for the search.
Spanish media reported that tax officials are looking into the origin of the money which Rato declared when he took advantage of a 2012 government tax amnesty approved by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government.
According to several media outlets, a Spanish judge asked French-American investment bank Lazard for information regarding an alleged payment of 6.2 million euros ($6.6 million) to Rato in 2011 several years after he worked for them as an adviser.
Rato, a former stalwart of Spain's ruling Popular Party, has already been questioned on suspicion of fraud in an ongoing probe into the stock market launch of bailed-out lender Bankia, which he once chaired.
He is suspected of misrepresenting Bankia's accounts ahead of its doomed stock market listing and has been charged with fraud, embezzlement and forgery.
Rato has also been questioned in court as part of another probe into alleged spending sprees on company credit cards by him and other ex-managers of Bankia.
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