Bankia robbery, charges brought against former chairman & 31 ex directors of failed Spanish banking conglomerate.

Political party 'Izquierda Unida' announced today the filing of  a lawsuit against 31 ex directors of Bankia and former chairman, Rodrigo Rato.
The failed bank was formed in December 2010 by merging 7 banks, (Caja Madrid, Bancaja, La Caja de Canarias, Caja de Ávila, Caixa Laietana, Caja Segovia & Caja Rioja) under the leadership of Rodrigo Rato but later needed a massive public bailout of around 24 billion Euros after it's collapse in 2012.
The lawsuit filed is for fraud in the merger and flotation into the stock market and for the fraudulent way it sold "preference" shares to try and hide its insolvency.

 The "preference" shares were misguidedly sold to customers with the promise of low risk, high reward returns. Shares were sold to, amongst others, a 72 year old blind man who couldn't read or write and a man with Alzheimer's. Many others had been customers of the bank for many years and when told by the bank directors of this amazing deal they poured their life's savings into them in hope of securing their futures and the futures of their family's. Some of the victims have had some of their money returned after individual court cases but many of these have yet to receive the legal minimum amount ordered by the courts.
These shares were sold in order to recoup money into the failing bank to hide the fact that it was going into bankruptcy and when customers asked about their investments they were either snubbed by the bank directors or just blatantly told they'd lost everything.
With the collapse, the tax payers of Europe have been forced into rescuing the Bankia group to the tune of around 23 billion Euros.