NEWS

SDOE report for Lagarde list probe to take 3 months

A parliamentary committee that is probing former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou’s handling of the so-called Lagarde list of Greek depositors was thrown into disarray Wednesday after a senior official of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) informed its members that it would take SDOE three months to compile a report on the assets of four of Papaconstantinou’s relatives whose names were removed from the list.

The committee had aimed to complete its investigation by March 29, but SDOE’s alternate director Panagiotis Mantouvalos told committee chairman Christos Markoyiannakis Wednesday that the volume of the data and the fact that it is not all in the same electronic format means that several weeks will be required for SDOE to issue a report.

Mantouvalos and another SDOE official are to be summoned next Tuesday by the committee to explain in more detail why the processing of the data is expected to take so long.

According to sources, various scenarios were discussed by the committee; one was the possibility of suspending the inquiry until the SDOE report is finished but objections were expressed due to the possibility of elections being called within the next three months which could lead to the charges faced by the ex-minister expiring under the statute of limitations.

On Thursday the committee is to continue its work, summoning former SDOE chief Yiannis Kapeleris and Costas Vaxevanis, the journalist who published a version of the Lagarde list last October.

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