NEWS

‘Lagarde list’ case goes to Parliament

Financial prosecutor Grigoris Peponis has sent the so-called ?Lagarde list? case to the Greek Parliament, asking for former Socialist ministers Giorgos Papaconstantinou and Evangelos Venizelos to be probed.

An investigation will be conducted by the Parliament’s committee for monitoring MP and party finances, led by Athanassios Nakos.

The list, named after the former French finance minister, contains more than 2,000 names of Greeks with substantial holdings in a Swiss branch of HSBC. A number of them allegedly used the accounts to evade national taxes.

It has emerged that Greek authorities failed, for a number of reasons, to investigate whether the account holders had deposited the money legally. Papaconstantinou and his successor, current PASOK chief Venizelos, kept the list for two years without taking any meaningful action.

On Thursday, Kostas Vaxevanis, a Greek investigative journalist who published the list, went on trial in Athens. Vaxevanis has been charged with breaching privacy rights by publishing the names.

Peponis on Thursday confirmed that the list contains the names of New Democracy MP Giorgos Voulgarakis and his wife Katerina Peleki.

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Voulgarakis denied the allegations. He said that neither he, nor his wife have ever owned a bank account outside the country.

Subscribe to our Newsletters

Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.