NEWS

Protecting rich spouses is good for economy

Hoping to discourage wealthy Greeks from squirreling funds into offshore companies or secret bank accounts to forestall alimony demands from potentially rapacious spouses, the government proposes to pass legislation that would formally recognize prenuptial agreements. Finance Ministry estimates indicate that spouses wary of expensive divorces have concealed some 20 billion euros of Greek funds in offshore companies and Swiss bank accounts, a ministry source told Kathimerini. Divorce settlements can amount to one spouse being forced to hand over to the other more than 30 percent of their possessions. Prenuptial agreements that would clearly define what married Greeks could claim from their spouses in the event of divorce are not mentioned in the country’s family law, and therefore are not legally binding. No one can claim, of course, that Simitis is a politician who can fully grasp reality, but one would expect that he would have realized that apart from the vehicles that drive through that specific section of Anagnostopoulou Street, there are also many residential flats, shops, and passers-by during the day who are are not invulnerable to the bullets fired by terrorists and the men of Simitis’s security escort.

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