Where there is a political will, there is a way… According to Greek media reports, the intensive crosschecks in bank accounts abroad and tax declarations in Greece have prompted the Financial Crime Units (SDOE) to call on at least 1,400 people to justify the money they have transferred outside the country.
The scandal about the lost and finally found Lagarde list have forced the economic inspectors to take under the magnifying glass all the 2,062 names of account holders at the HSBC Geneva branch.
Daily Kathimerini reports that the SDOE investigation showed that a large number of the 2,062 Greeks figuring on the list are unable to justify their deposits as legally earned income. The amount of suspected tax evasion is expected to reach dozens of millions of euros while a number of those holding deposits are expected to face charges once the SDOE probe is concluded.
At the same time, double checks on a list with the name of 54,000 Greeks who transferred money abroad during the crisis years 2009-2011 have shown that in 1,400 cases there is quite some gap between the amounts transferred and the tax declarations. According to private ANT1 TV, the economic inspectors double checked money transfers about 100,000 euro and the investigation results show that 7 billion euro cannot be justified.
The tax evaders will be called to pay a fine of unknown height.
The point is however that the Finance Ministry will indeed collect these fines and do not let those large-scale tax evaders go around free and careless. Otherwise, the whole tax evasion combat issue is just smoke in the eyes of the honest Greek taxpayer who cannot hide even a cent.
I’m glad I took all MY money out of the country in 1997. Boy did I luck out.
I really think this issue requires a lot more research (and explanation) by the authorities. Right now it sounds like: ‘we found the 1.400 culprits and we’ll go after them! Thus, everything is fine!’
If I recall, the BoG had originally reported that about 55.000 Greeks had transferred somewhere between 20-30 BEUR abroad. Inititally, I thought they had cleared about 40.000 and were pursuing another 15.000.
Whether it is 1.400 or 15.000 who will be pursued, some explanation is necessary how the remaining 53.000 or 40.000 (whichever way you cut it) could be cleared so quickly!
Given the evidence of how long it takes authorities to work through about 2.000 names of the Lagarde list, how could they so quickly work through so many more names??? Who did the checking? Who audited the checking?
As important as the highly publicised Lagarde list is, compared to 20-30 BEUR of the 55.000 it is almost peanuts.
According to Greke media, apparently authorities called about half of 55,000 to submit explanation on how they came up to such amounts of money, but hardly anyone responded.
In my humble opinion, they circulate the lists to show they do something but they cannot do anything against those who support them in one or another way.
smoke in our eyes, the eyes of the poor devils who have not the means to do tax evasion.
this is a CANCER that must be removed before greeks can begin to face up to their future
i hope the politicans show that the political will is there to resolve this
the people deserve it and nothing less
Do I detect some Irish black humour here?
Maybe Greek politicians could learn about this from their Irish colleagues…. Once the Irish guys stop trying to gag all their critics on the “social media” they might start giving lessons in political will and back bone politics…
Which one ot the 2 bunches is the most corrupt do you think, or would it actually be a draw?