The Supreme Court confirms the acquittal of those accused of Bankia's IPO

Together with Rato, among those acquitted are the ex-executive advisor of Bankia, José Manuel Fernández Norniella; the former vice president of the entity José Luis Olivas, and his successor, Francisco Verdú; the former Minister of the Interior Ángel Acebes; Bankia's auditor, Sergio Durá, and Deloitte's auditor partner, Francisco Celma.

The high court has rejected the appeals filed against the decision adopted more than two years ago, on September 29, 2020, by the Criminal Chamber of the National High Court, which considered that the IPO had the approval of all the supervisors -Bank of Spain, National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), FROB and European Banking Authority (EBA)-.

Likewise, it considered that the prospectus contained "wide and accurate" financial and non-financial information, and highlighted that both the decision to go public and the determination to do so with the double bank structure were resolutions "entirely contemplated by the Bank of Spain ", which through its Inspection Service "supervised and approved all the steps," reports Efe.

In a sentence dated October 24 of about 180 pages, the Supreme Court's criminal chamber has put an end to a case that has lasted for a decade, since in May 2012, just ten months after leaving Stock Exchange, the entity was nationalized; Shortly after, UPyD, the party led by Rosa Díez, filed a complaint with the National High Court.

The two appeals now dismissed were formulated by private accusations representing AEMEC (Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies) and by Bochner Spain.

The Supreme Court endorses that the entire process prior to the jump to the parquet on July 20, 2011 was perfectly known, supervised and authorized by the Bank of Spain, and had the consent of the Ministry of Economy, a version defended by defendants such as Rato, who He asserted that the IPO, like the merger, was not a "business decision, but a legal one", of which both the Bank of Spain and the Government were "totally in favor", after the new demands on the savings banks.

Both the decision to carry out the operation and the determination to do it with the double bank structure were resolutions "entirely contemplated by the Bank of Spain", which also approved them after calibrating the advantages and disadvantages that said decisions entailed.

The agency, through its Inspection Service, "supervised and approved all the steps followed", carrying out a detailed analysis of the operation, all of which "has not been denied at any time by the accusations", which tried to "ignore it in a useless attempt to disregard such overwhelming data".

The Supreme recalls in its sentence the discrepancies between the expert reports of the accusation and the defenses, but affects those between the experts critical of the management of the Bankia administrators.

The Supreme Court's support for the ruling of the National High Court endorses the management of Rodrigo Rato, who was at the head of the entity since the integration process, an operation that "was due to decisions adopted by the economic authorities, without any initiative on the part of the defendants".

The ruling of the National Court, continues the Supreme Court, "does not identify, in relation to any of the defendants, false or fraudulent conduct in the process of going public", although it admits that "other assessments are possible, such as the one that came to support the experts proposed by the accusations".