Bourboulia’s accounts opened
The details of the money going out and, more importantly, coming in to the Swiss bank accounts of former judge Constantina Bourboulia were yesterday given to a prosecutor in Greece in what could be a turning point in the probe into alleged trial fixing. Bourboulia had put up a legal fight to maintain the secrecy of her three accounts but a Swiss court recently rejected her appeal. This means appeals prosecutor Kyriakos Karoutsos, who received the records from the Justice Ministry yesterday, will be able to study the transfers into Bourboulia’s accounts for indications of potential cases of bribery. The information will ultimately end up on the desks of the two magistrates – Yiannis Sideris and Yiannis Fiorakis – who are investigating the actions of an alleged trial-fixing ring. Sources said that the records indicate payments of up to 300,000 euros at a time were made to Bourboulia from businessmen and offshore companies. One of the businessmen alleged to have made large deposits into the accounts is Tryfon Apostolopoulos who, sources said, has told authorities he is willing to cooperate. Apostolopoulos is one of the people that Bourboulia investigated five years ago as part of a wide probe into alleged stock market manipulation. Bourboulia was given a suspended jail sentence last June after being found guilty of mishandling the probe. She has also been charged in connection with the alleged trial-fixing ring. Bourboulia is currently in custody in Paris, where she was arrested in January. A local court is due to decide tomorrow whether to extradite her to Greece after a number of legal holdups prevented the judge from ruling.
