Figure for Siemens cash

Evidence points to payments of more than 12 million euros over seven years

Greece’s main political parties allegedly received more than 12 million euros from Siemens between 1998 and 2005, according to court documents seen by Kathimerini yesterday as the government continued to deny any connection with the bribery scandal.

Sources said that US-based legal firm Debevoise & Plimpton has handed prosecutor Panayiotis Athanassiou documents indicating that 12.8 million euros was paid over the seven-year period either via the German firm’s Greek subsidiary Siemens Hellas or via a complicated system of foreign bank accounts.

The solicitors did not find any direct evidence of payment to ministers but questioning of former Siemens Hellas employees could yield more information.

Two stockbrokers and two representatives of offshore companies appeared before Athanassiou yesterday to be questioned about claims that they had received or facilitated the transfer of money from Siemens in Germany to accounts in Greece that are under scrutiny.

All four denied knowledge of being involved in anything illegal.

Former PASOK official Theodoros Tsou-katos has already admitted to accepting a payment from Siemens of some 500,000 euros on behalf of his party nine years ago.

Tsoukatos said the offer was made by Siemens Hellas’s former managing director Michalis Christoforakos.

The government yesterday vehemently denied that one of its ministers had in the past been on trips abroad with Christoforakos.

“If someone is involved in the Siemens case, they should say so,” said government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos. “I am not prepared to respond to rumors all the time. If anybody has any evidence, they should present it to the courts and the Greek people.”

Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos yesterday issued a personal statement denying rumors that KEP, a political party that he founded but which had a brief life, also received money from Siemens’s slush fund.

KEP was founded in March 2001 but was dissolved just 15 months later.