Conservative daily Eleftheros Typos reveals on Monday that the minister involved in the TV licenses visited Venezuela together with a Cypriot off-shore lawyer whose name was mentioned in the Panama Papers. The visit took place back in 2013, that is 116 months before SYRIZA won the elections and came into power.
According to El Typos, State Minister Nikos Pappas and Cypriot lawyer Artemis Artemiou visited Caracas and met with executives of Greek businesses in the Latin America country.
The reporter who visited Venezuela cites a high-ranking political source of Venezuela saying “the leading minister of the SYRIZA government and close aide of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Nikos Pappas, visited the oil-rich country together with Artemis Artemiou, a lawyer experienced in off-shore companies.”
The visit to Caracas took place in August 2013.
The daily recalls that the lawyer was seen exiting the Greek Prime Minister’s office on October 10th through a side entrance and thus “short before the debate about corruption and interweaving started in the Parliament.”.
Artemiou had admitted in a written statement that he had visited the PM’s office with an investment proposal.
Main opposition party, conservative New Democracy issued a statement asking PM Tsipras and Minister Pappas to clarify the relation with a lawyer whose name was involved in the Panama Papers Leaks.
The PM’s office issued a statement describing as “ridiculous” the attempt of ND to create a scandal with international dimensions.”
Whereas the ND issued another statement in this war of statements war between the government and the main opposition.
Later Minister Nikos Pappas spoke to a private TV broadcaster and admitted the visit saying that the purpose was to purchase agricultural products from the state super markets in Venezuela.
PS the statements war between government-ND reminds me a bit of the Trump-Clinton presidential race: revelations until the enemy is exterminated – in the Greek case: until Pappas is gone.
As if they knew even back then that some German money would be coming their way, in need of investment offshore…