NEWS

Criminal charges brought against former defense minister

Corruption prosecutor Eleni Raikou on Monday brought criminal charges against former Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and his wife, Stavroula Kourakou, in connection with inaccurate source of wealth (“pothen esches”) declarations he is alleged to have submitted in 2009 and 2010.

The prosecutor is investigating a 1.3-million-euro deposit in a Swiss bank account belonging to Kourakou, which the ex-minister is accused of not declaring in his pothen esches declaration in 2008, an offense that has been considered a felony since 2009 when the law was made stricter.

Sources said that Papantoniou has claimed that the account had been set up in 2000 by his wife and her ex-husband as a trust fund to cover the cost of her children’s studies.

He said that he had not known about the account and that in 2010, when the cash was transferred to Greece, his wife’s children took control of the money.

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