Former Greek Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou is being tried for tampering with the Lagarde List. The first day of his trial began today, Thursday, February 26. During the process, it was revealed that over the last three years, the Greek Financial Crime Unit (SDOE) had only audited 30 out of the 2062 people who were under investigation due to the List.
Following a SDOE investigation, it was revealed that Papakonstantinou’s relatives had failed to pay taxes on assets amounting to 6 million euros, which correspond to 1.93 million euros. However, the tax office had not yet issued any fines against them. At the same time, the country is constantly bleeding, requesting liquidity, while since 2009, the fight against tax evasion still remains a pre-election promise for all Greek governments. “We are planning on disclosing our findings to the people involved over the next few days,” said Dimitris Massinas, director of Taxation Audit Center for Great Wealth, who checked all the assets, adding that the tax accounting for the family’s income over the last 15 years reaches 8 million euros.
In regards to the audit process, he commented that it was a “lengthy process” since they were looking at data from a 15-year period. “We don’t have many qualified employees,” he added.
Furthermore, the judges were also interested in finding out how the Lagarde List CD went missing.
Papakonstantinou’s former office director Chrysi Hatzi testified that the former Finance Minister received a “confidential letter” containing the Lagarde List from the Greek embassy in Paris. He then proceeded to inform the SDOE head at the time, Yiannis Kapeleris, to carry out an investigation.
The trial will continue tomorrow at 3pm when the court will respond to the defense counsel’s request asking for former Laundering Authority president and current Minister of State against Corruption Panagiotis Nikoloudis to take the stand.
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