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Elections Could Save Papaconstantinou

news-papakonstantinou-elleimmaIf a growing political crisis surrounding the Greek coalition government over the closing of the national broadcaster ERT by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras- a move that made him lose the support of his coalition partners – leads to early elections, it could stop the investigation of former finance minister George Papaconstantinou’s handling of a list of Greeks with secret Swiss bank accounts never checked for possible tax evaders.
Dissolution of the Parliament would also end the work of the committee investigating Papaconstantinou, who had been charged with breach of trust as the lawmakers are trying to determine who removed the names of three of his relatives – said to owe 10 million euros ($13 million) in taxes and penalties – from the so-called Lagarde List.
It is named for former French finance Christine Lagarde, who gave a version with Greek depositors with $1.95 billion in the Geneva branch of HSBC culled from a larger list stolen by a former bank employees, to Papaconstantinou in 2010.
He said it vanished but a version on a memory stick was produced by his successor, now current PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, a lawyer, who said he didn’t check it for possible tax cheats either. A partner in Samaras’ coalition government, he is not being investigated. Lagarde is now head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF,) one of Greece’s Troika of lenders along with the European Union and European Central Bank.
Another meeting of the parliamentary committee was held on June 13 as protests around the closing of ERT continued. Two lawmakers on the panel, Zoe Konstantopoulou and George Kalantzis were to travel Israel to question Sabby Mionis, one of the largest account holders on the list. Papaconstantinou’s relatives whose names were erased have refused to reappear before the committee.

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