A Corruption prosecutor pressed criminal charges against former defense minister Yiannos Papantoniou and his wife Stavroula Kourakoy for money laundering. The couple has been banned from leaving the country.
The charges were brought after a preliminary investigation by the office of the Corruption Prosecutor concerning the legality of the couple’s deposits abroad and the control of the acquisition of a real estate after 2000.
Yiannos Papantoniou served as Minister of Defense from 2001 to 2003 under the PASOK government of Kostas Simitis.
In November 2014, Papantoniou was convicted by an Athens court of failing to declare 1.2 million euros in a Swiss bank account held under his wife’s name.
According to sources, the Friday’s charge was based on an account belonging to the former minister, which was included in the so-called Borjans list of taxpayers with large deposits in Switzerland’s UBS.
Last month, judicial officials carried out secret raids at the home and office of Papantoniou as part of the investigation into allegations of bribe taking and money laundering during his term as defense minister after the year 2000.
Yiannos Papantoniou is the second former Defense Minister from PASOK to face charges for money laundering. The first was Akis Tsochatzopoulos who was convicted for 20 years imprisonment but released in April due to health reasons. He served 5.5 years of his sentence.
I bet that in corruption terms, guys like Papantoniou and Tsohatzopoulos will be proven saints compared to anybody who served in memoranda governments and parliaments. The problem is that the protection period for the former has expired, while it is still in force for the latter.