Fashion Designer Tax Cheat Off The Hook

Continuing to show leniency toward major tax cheats while hammering workers, pensioners and the poor with pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions, a Greek court on June 21 found fashion entrepreneur Lakis Gavalas guilty of owing some 17 million euros ($22.34 million) in unpaid taxes – but said he would be released and serve no jail time. It was not reported whether he had to pay the back taxes.
Gavalas was given a seven-year suspended sentence while his sister and business partner, Nota, also convicted, received a six-year suspended sentence and will walk free too.
The court rejected Gavalas’s request to transfer his company’s eastern Attica headquarters to the state in exchange for a write-off of the company’s debts on the grounds that the property was already mortgaged and that he didn’t own it.
The Gavalas siblings were not expected to be released from custody until the weekend due to a technicality and were ordered to report to their local police headquarters on a regular basis.
Earlier this year, once-popular singer Tolis Voskopoulos, who was convicted of evading 5.5 million euros ($7.5 million) in taxes and received a suspended three-jail term had all his penalties annulled by the country’s highest court, the Council of State, without any explanation why he was allowed to get off scot free while lesser debtors were being pursued for all they had.
The newspaper Proto Thema reported that it’s not known if he may be fined a smaller, undetermined amount after he earlier had said he’d already spent all the money and couldn’t afford to pay and his popularity has faded over the years.
In the Greek judicial system, an annulled case goes back to a court of appeal to be tried again and often leads to a drastic reduction in penalties. The government has not moved to seize his assets, although it was reported he has real estate worth more than 800,000 euros ($1.091 million.)
Officials said the singer, now 71, didn’t pay taxes for more than 20 years and was never pursued either despite his fame or because of it. When the case broke three years ago, it led to his wife, Angela Gerekou, losing her job as deputy culture minister.
The singer’s lawyer told the Athens Court of First Instance then that Voskopoulos had been unable to sell properties to pay his dues as all his assets have been frozen.
The lawyer argued too that his client’s income had dwindled significantly over the years and comprised only royalties from his records and 3,500 euros ($4,770) per month from a rented property in Korydallos, near Piraeus.