Board members and executives at the bailed-out Spanish banks Bankia and Caja Madrid used undeclared credit cards to accumulate personal expenses totalling €15.5 million over a ten year period.
Between 2003 and 2012 the credit cards were given to 86 people outside the normal expense account system and were used to pay for things like clothes, meals, supermarket goods and trips as well as to make cash withdrawals of €2.1 million from ATMs. This is the scenario according to an investigation being overseen by High Court Judge Fernando Andreu.
Among those who used the cards were former Caja Madrid president Miguel Blesa, Bankia president Rodrigo Rato and board members appointed by the Popular Party, Socialist Party, United Left and the CCOO labour union. Rato, whose salary at Bankia in 2010 was €2.8 million, and a number of other executives have already paid back the money they spent on the cards.
On Thursday, Madrid regional premier Ignacio González dismissed economy director general Pablo Abejas for allegedly racking up expenses worth €246,700 on his card.
Many of the executives have expressed surprise at the investigation, saying they thought it was all legal and above board, although they could not explain how such expenses were declared for tax purposes.