Greek businessman Kyriakos Griveas and his wife Anastasia Vatsika surrendered themselves to Scotland Yard in London shortly after Wednesday noon, Greek media report. The couple was sought by Greek police for ‘red loans’ it had received from the Hellenic Postbank. An international arrest warrant had been issued as the couple had recently moved to United Kingdom.
According to prosecutors’ finding investigating the loans given by Hellenic Postbank without guarantees, Grivea and Vatsika had received 17 million euro as loan for business investment. However, the money allegedly was used for personal purposes.
“The businessman and his wife allegedly had taken a loan of 15 million euros in order to purchase companies that they substantially belonged to them. Additional a 2.5-million-euro loan that was to be used for advertising purposes was paid to a company that also belonged to the couple. The total amount of loans received by Griveas and Vatsika was 19,850,000 euro,” notes news portal newsit.gr.
According to the same news source, during the previous days Griveas and Vatsika were in negotiations with the Greek authorities and wanted to return to Greece but avoid being arrested for the Hellenic Postbank loans.
It is not clear when the couple will be extradited to Greece. Former CEO of HPb, Aggelos Philippidis, is currently in a prison in Istanbul, Turkey awaiting extradition to Greece.