Lavrentiadis transferred to Korydallos Prison
Businessman Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, who owned a controlling stake in Proton Bank, was remanded in custody at Korydallos Prison in Athens on Monday as details of the case file against him showed he is being accused of being part of an “organized team” that knowingly plundered the lender’s funds to finance the entrepreneur’s companies.
Lavrentiadis had undergone hospital treatment over the weekend but authorities said on Monday that officers at Korydallos would decide whether he would need further medical attention at the prison’s clinic or psychiatric facility.
Also on Monday, a Proton Bank employee who was the subject of an arrest warrant handed herself in to the special magistrate handling the investigation into the Lavrentiadis case. The businessman’s partner in several ventures, including the Athens News English-language weekly, Petros Kyriakidis, was still being sought by police last night.
So far three suspects have been arrested in connection to the case, but legal documents revealed that a total of 33 people are due to stand trial for allegedly allowing Lavrentiadis’s companies to borrow large amounts from Proton even though they were heavily in debt.
The case file cites the example of the entrepreneur’s pharmaceutical firm, Alapis, which received loans despite owing some 1 billion euros at the end of 2010. Lavrentiadis is accused of appointing figures he could “control totally” to the bank’s executive board.
