Three more people were arrested on Tuesday under the suspicion of bribing Greek military officials for armament purchases.
Greek weapons merchant Konstantinos Dafermos, along with his son and his close associate, were arrested for bribing Greek government officials to purchase kornet anti-tank missiles, Greek media reports. The arrest is part of a wider investigation seeking to uncover the various bribery cases involved in Greece’s armament deals.
Kathimerini newspaper claims that Dafermos’s bank accounts showed that his company had made an 800,000 euro payment to Antonis Kantnas, a former Greek general director in armament purchases for Greece’s military.
Following his arrest in 2013, Kantas had revealed he had received 16 millions euro in bribes during his tenure from various sources to ensure that the Greek military purchase armaments from specific companies. Dafermos was among the people he had named during his testimony in December 2013.
Tuesday’s arrest follows the arrest of Greek businessman Thomas Liakounakos for bribing Greek officials with two million euros for the purchase of Swedish telecom company Ericson’s aerial surveillance system in 1999.
Akis Tsochatzopoulos, the Greek Minister of National Defence between 1996 and 2001, was convicted to a twenty year prison sentence for money laundering in 2013, after the prosecutor found he was being bribed since 1997 for various armament purchases.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
