What is 15MpaRato?
15MpaRato* is a citizen-led legal campaign to end the impunity of bankers, speculators and politicians. Although many other actions may be pursued, this citizen campaign is now focusing on the insolvency of Bankia and Spain’s consequent EU bail-out.
The bailout proposed by the government – PPSOE and the Troika, is to sell out a whole country and its people, leaving it no rights, no voice and no bread just to preserve the privileges of a few.
No thanks. We do not need to be rescued. We are no longer for sale. We will rescue ourselves with the money bankers, speculators and politicians have stolen.
The message is clear: Impunity is over. In the war of those above against the ones below, fear has changed sides.
The legal campaign:
The stock market debut of Bankia was full of irregularities, including the falsification of accounts and the fraudulent sale of preferred shares to the private individuals.
15MpaRato was able to find dozens of plaintiffs and witnesses in record time and raised 20.000€ through crowd-funding in only 24h. The campaign undertook criminal actions against the members of Bankia’s Board of Directors which are now officially charged and attend trial.More information on: https://15mparato.wordpress.com/legal-campaign/
15MpaRato plays with words. 15M is the name given to the Spanish Indignado / Occupy movement (for it was May 15th that the movement burst out). 15MpaRato, means “indignados for long” and at the same time “indignados against Rato”.
Rodrigo Rato was the CEO of Bankia when it went bankrupt and the one responsible for the manipulation of its accounts.
He was also former IMF chief and one of the politicians responsible of the creation of the real state bubble as former Minister of Economy during the presidency of Aznar (1996-2004).
A long way to go
In these three months since we started 15MPaRato, we have made some progress in our efforts to attack those who are directly responsible for the crisis, concentrating on the objective of imprisoning Rodrigo Rato and other advisors at Bankia, as a symbol of the financial scam.
We know this action is only one out of many necessary actions, but it is essential to bring impunity to an end and to name and shame corrupted people. If those ultimately responsible are not found guilty by means of the law, we will have diagnosed the limitations of a legislative model tailored to suit those who always win.
We continue to seek for other ways to change the rules of the game, as Iceland is doing.
In addition to being a warning, 15MPaRato is a device to sabotage the political agenda of bailouts and cuts through strategies we explain below.
It is also useful to empower us in another field – part of the strength we have gained in social networks and plazas is moving to where the legal and political framework that supports this scam called crisis is operating.
Time is against them
Those who rule over us are in a hurry to implement their bailout and cuts agenda to try to legalize all the excesses committed during the time of the housing bubble and ensure their impunity. Time is against them.
As we know, these people are not serious and the Troika does not trust them. Rome does not pay traitors. The proof is that we are negotiating the second bailout and we have not yet received the money from the first one.
Their reasons for not doing it reaffirm the two strategic lines we presented from the beginning – accounting and legal issues. Basically, the Troika is not releasing the money needed to fill in the hole left in Bankia because:
1. Accounts are unclear. In August, Europe waited until the very last minute to see Bankia’s half-yearly accounts published.
We were right. The hole had grown up to 4,500 million euros.
Those who govern us could not wait any longer and the FROB (Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring) itself was quick to seize the umpteenth financial reform as an opportunity to inject that same amount the following day, as an advance payment of the first rescue that wasn’t coming.
With treachery and during August summer holidays, that same week the Bad Bank was created (Rato’s old dream to clear their sins) and the FROB was promoted by decree to supreme authority over any democratic control.
2. The Troika also needs legal security to ensure the money injected into Bankia’s hole will go to the big foreign creditors (not to savers and investors) as the Memorandum expressly requests. The same day, the Government approved a law decree that enables the FROB to prevent court sentence executions.
Every law has its loophole.
Rescue protocols are nothing more and nothing less than protocols to bypass law. We saw this with the Memorandum and the 14/7 Royal Decrees.
The attempt to deactivate public resistance to be robbed with impunity compensating Troika’s large investors instead, has materialized with a new piece of legislation ordered by Brussels; the Royal Decree of August 31st. (Royal Decree-Law 24/2012). With it, in one blow, attack deepens on the very foundation of legality and insolvency laws, in addition to some fundamental principles of capitalism itself as the par conditio creditorum (equal terms for creditors).
With this decree, when shareholders and scammed preferred shareholders win a lawsuit, the FROB can challenge the National High Court with economic causes which would make impossible the execution of sentences to give shareholders their money back – A coup in benefit of the stockmarket, from the hand of our Government, leaving people legally defenseless and killing the independence of the judiciary – two strikes in one.
Our governors believe they have accomplished their scam, but no decree can modify a previous vitiated or void contract. Through the courts, banks do not have it easy and they know it.
Obviously, we will not go without sabotaging this blow. We must set the stage for an unconstitutionality appeal. And so we will.
Concerning ad hoc laws designed to protect large speculators responsible for the crisis against small savers, we must remember that Rato is a specialist; he forged laws for the preferred shares scam when he was Spain’s Finance Minister.
We therefore emphasize our strategy once again those to blame for the crisis hoax have names, we know who they are. We are going after them and their patrimony. The 31/8 Royal Decree can’t stop this.
Next Steps
The game goes on. And, as always, we need your help to continue sabotaging the rescue hoax and put Rodrigo Rato and his accomplices in prison. The judicial process has its rhythm, but at 15MpaRato we will not rest until we achieve our goals.
Our next moves include:
1. We again call on new shareholders who want to join Bankia’s lawsuit to contact us. The aim is to increase public pressure and reduce legal costs. We also want to continue collecting information on cases of small shareholders affected by Bankia.
2. We need the help of experts in accounting to track down Bankia’s accounts and continue the analysis. Please, accountants from the bright side, contact us at 15MpaRato@gmail.com.
3. The shield put up by August 31st decree to protect their interests will not last forever. It is clearly an unconstitutional piece of legislation and we are preparing a campaign to put our hands on it.
To begin with, in a few weeks, we will be happy to see Rodrigo Rato in the dock. With this beautiful image on the retina, we will continue to develop all these lines of action.