Fund probe ramped up
As the scandal widens surrounding the 5 million a civil servants’ pension fund allegedly overpaid for a government bond, the government said yesterday that investigators would look into the sale of all bonds by stockbroker firms to pension funds over the last five years. The extraordinary measure was prompted by allegations earlier this month that the Acropolis stockbroker firm grossly overcharged the civil servants’ auxiliary pension fund (TEADY) in the purchased of a state bond. The action came after Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis met yesterday with the president of the Capital Market Commission (CMC), Alexis Pilavios, and the head of the independent committee which combats money laundering, Giorgos Zorbas. «Mr Alogoskoufis has ordered an in-depth investigation so that all the facts uncovered by the investigation can be brought to light,» said government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos. Acropolis denies any wrongdoing and yesterday argued that if TEADY sells four bonds that it has bought from the firm for almost -302 million it will make a profit of -2.8 million. Sources said that officials will also investigate the role of another stockbrokerage firm, Hitech SNT, after allegations that it also claimed a commission in the sale of the bond. The government yesterday asked the Supreme Court to speed up the investigation into TEADY’s purchase. Meanwhile, Alogoskoufis played down suggestions by main opposition PASOK that Labor Minister Savvas Tsitouridis should be held responsible for not preventing the alleged overcharging of the fund. The finance minister insisted that Tsitouridis had «acted appropriately.» PASOK was also unhappy that Zorbas, whose committee is supposed to be independent of the government, met with Alogoskoufis to agree to the scope of the investigation.
