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The never ending SIEMENS Scandal – Part II: Karakostas, Alogoskoufis
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics
I am convinced this can happen to everyone! You deal with half a million German marks and you don’t remember the names of the persons involved!This happened to Pantelis Karacostas, a civil engineer and businessman, who testified last week in front of a parliamentary committee investigating the Siemens scandal.
Pantelis Karacostass admitted to Greek lawmakers that he had received DM 200.000 in November 1998 from a feeder account , kept a 5% commission for himself and deposited the rest of the amount to an account at a Swiss bank the same day. The feeder account belonged to Siemens Hellas- executive Ilias Georgiou, account manager of the Siemens ‘black funds’. The Swiss bank account belonged to A. Rocos, alias Giorgos Tsougnanis, a relative of ex-minister of Transport Tasos Mantelis , charged for money laundering and bribes.
Karacostas said further that he knew many Siemens-managers and that Georgiou asked him to act as a middleman for the money transfer, saying that Siemens didn’t want to reveal the receiver’s data.
Karacostas also talked of a “fat” German, whose name he could not remember, but it seems he gave him 200.000 DM. To make the long ( and a bit confusing) story short, Karacostas deposited again to Rocos’s account another 250.00 DM some time later.
The Parliament investigation committee informed the judicial authorities and the prosecutor filled criminal charges against Karacostas banning him at the same time from leaving the country. Karacostas walks around free, he might even have a chat over a frappuccino with Mantelis.
The parliamentary hearing was behind closed doors , so all the information here is from what it was leaked to the press, heard in Greek TV channels and read in newspapers. We can add “ALLEDGEDLY” to the whole story….
Earlier today, Giorgos Alogoskoufis, ex-Minister of Finance , known as ” the Czar” of the Greek economy under Karamanlis government, testified in front of the parliamentary committee, as well. He knew nothing and had no contacts to anyone, he claimed… Alogoskoufis was interrogated in context of state contracts of Siemens with OTE (National Telecommunications Company) and OSE (State Railways). He said, Ministry of Finance had nothing to do with these contracts.
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