Deputy speaker refutes tax evasion charges
Deputy Parliament Speaker Alexis Mitropoulos on Tuesday refuted claims of alleged tax evasion and money laundering after a Greek Supreme Court prosecutor, Yiannis Dragatsis, called on the House to lift the SYRIZA lawmaker’s immunity from prosecution in connection to a case involving a fee allegedly paid to Mitropoulos in 1999 which he subsequently failed to declare.
According to the case file, the deputy speaker was allegedly paid 1 million dollars abroad in his capacity as a lawyer, a sum which he allegedly failed to declare to Greek tax authorities.
Responding to the allegations on Tuesday, Mitropoulos cited several court decisions showing that the money had been taxed in its entirety and that the tax case in question had also expired under the statute of limitations.
Mitropoulos further noted that he had already forwarded the relevant documents to financial crimes prosecutor Panayiotis Athanasiou, who is Dragatsis’s superior.
