Former Greek socialist PASOK finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou is to stand before the court on Wednesday morning over charges of allegedly tampering with the Lagarde list that contained the names of more than 2,000 affluent Greeks with cash deposits at a Swiss HSBC branch. He is being held following the failed handling of the list and an effort to remove the names of three of his relatives.
According to the indictment decree, Papaconstantinou tampered with the list by erasing the names of three of his relatives in order to conceal the fact that their names were on the CD, thus avoiding any damage to his political image as a Finance Minister while simultaneously benefiting his three relatives, who would avoid the tax audit. Nevertheless, the audit conducted found that his relatives had concealed a taxable income between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2011.
The special court is convening for the first time in over two decades following the 1991 trial of former socialist PASOK prime minister Andreas Papandreou as well as other famous Greek trials concerning that of notorious former banker and publisher George Koskotas who spearheaded the financial scandal that brought down the PASOK government in 1989.
Judiciaries estimate that the trial could carry on for a month and a half, provided that Papaconstantinou’s lawyers don’t use delaying tactics throughout the procedure. The judges presiding over the case are Nikolaos Passos and prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou-Vassilopoulou.
Papaconstantinou, who served as finance minister for Greece from October 2009 through to June 2011, under the government of George Papandreou, has denied all charges and states that he is being made a scapegoat. He said that he had asked others to investigate the Lagarde list but they failed to do so.
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