UPD 07/06/10
Akis Tsochatzopoulos appeared before the Trnasparency Committee of PASOK today. The Committee decided to propose the suspecion of the Tsochatzopoulos party membership. If PASOk – Ethics Committee takes a possitive decision it will be independantly of any justice’s decision.
Ex-deputy and Minister, Tsochatzopoulos stated that he will go to justice in order to prtotect his dignity and talked about “centers” that wish his political and physical extincion.
According to Greek websites the ex-Minister condiers sueing several blogs.
Sunday edition of Proto Thema claimed that the properties of Mr. Tsochatzopoulos total some € 10 million.
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My friends and Akis
I could call my friends “average Greeks, aged 38-58 years old, mostly University Graduates”
Asking around all my friends said they don’t give a dam about Akis’ party membership. They ask for full investigation and in case Akis found guilty… confiscation of his properties. They wonder how his wife Vicky gets a bank loan of € 650.000 when banks hardly would give a cent to a normal citizen.
In my friends’s eyes Akis is guilty! My friends are angry…
Five Sunday newspapers gave detailed reports about ex- PASOK- Ministers’ properties and how he became their owner; mostly they were bought from off shore companies. Also the assets of his wife, Vicky Stamati, employee at the State Electricity Company, and his daughter Areti have been questioned.
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Former-PASOK Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos to answer prosecutors’ questions.
Head of the Athens First Instance Court Prosecutor ordered preliminary investigation on the occasion of the press reports about Tsochatzopoulos’s luxury home in noble Athens street Dionysiou Aeropagitou. Two main Greek Sunday newspapers claim that the three-storey ‘petit palace’ was transferred to Tsochatzopoulos wife Vicky Stamatis three days before the voting of the new tax bill.
The prosecutor Mr. Adamis, responsible for financial crimes in the first phase will examine the records to verify whether the transfer resulted into tax violations.
Newspapers Kathimerini and Proto Thema claim that Akis Tsochatzopoulos transferred the home from an Off Shore company to his wife in order to escape taxes. The transfer has allegedly took place just three days before the vote on the tax bill, which among other quintupled the tax property owned by offshore companies. According to Proto Thema the building has a real value of 6.5 million Euros.
The luxury style of Akis Tsochatzopoulos has raised questions as he has ‘worked’ as Deputy and Minister for 26 years. His large-spending marriage to Vicky Stamati, a writer, has caused a public outcry back in 2004. In the year 2007 he failed to be elected, two years later he withdrew from politics.
Mr. Tsochatzopoulos is also invited to answer questions of the Transparency Committee of PASOK.
