Former Greek Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and his wife Starvroula Kiriakou were each sentenced to four years in prison, that can instead be converted into a daily 10 euro payment, and were ordered to pay a 10,000 euro penalty each, for hiding 1.3 million euros from their tax reports in 2009, according to Greek media reports.
The court also decided that the couple will have to pay the Greek state 20,000 euros each for the inflicted damage.
Papanotniou served as the Greek Economy Minister from 1994 to 2001 and then as National Defense Minister from 2001 to 2004 under three consecutive PASOK party governments.
The court decided that the couple knowingly hid the 1.3 million euros that Kiriakou had deposited in an HSBC account in Switzerland in 2000. The account had been made known through the Lagarde list, which includes over 2,000 Greek banks accounts of HSBC’s branch in Switzerland.
The court further denied the defendants’ request for a hearing on the potential delay of the prison sentence.
The couple is also facing misdemeanor charges for not declaring income in 2008 and felony charges for not declaring income in 2010, Kathimerini newspaper reports.
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!
