The former head of the Financial Crime Squad (SDOE); Yiannis Diotis, was given a 10-year suspended sentence over his handling of the so-called Lagarde list.
A three-member appeals Court of Athens unanimously found Diotis guilty of failing to use the data included in the list, of Greek depositors at HSBC bank.
They ruled that by his actions he allowed those Greeks whose name was on the list to escape inspection.
The ruling was in direct contrast to the recommendation of a prosecutor who only a few days ago demanded the release of Diotis on the grounds that he acted in an appropriate manner since he handed over the Lagarde list to the then finance minister Evangelos Venizelos.
The Lagarde list is a spreadsheet containing roughly 2,000 potential tax evaders with undeclared accounts at HSBC bank’s Geneva branch, in Switzerland.
It is named after former French finance minister Christine Lagarde; who in October 2010 passed it on to Greek officials to help them crack down on tax evasion.
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