The name of the spouse of New Democracy leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is included in the Paradise Papers. Mareva Grabowski – Mitsotaki appears as a shareholder of 50% of an offshore company based in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. The offshore “Eternia Capital Management” is the administrator of a fund based in the British Virgin Islands. Eternia is an asset management company specializing in Hedge Funds.
The leaked documents of the law firm Appleby were received by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which shared the date with International Consortium of Investigative journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries. In Greece, the research results are exclusively published by newspaper Ethnos and 24 Media Group and its website news247.gr
According to news247.gr, the Eternia Capital Management was founded and registered to Cayman on March 30, 2010.
Shareholders were Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotaki and an old co-workers of hers form the time she was working at the Deutsche Bank.
At the time the company was founded, Grabowski was living in separation from Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, “Politically Exposed Persons” (PEPs) means natural persons to whom a major public office has been or has been entrusted, their immediate close relatives and persons known to be close associates. When a person is identified as an PEP, more stringent audits should be applied, among others, to the clients of a law firm that undertakes the offshore recommendation on their behalf. This, of course, does not mean that politically exposed persons are prohibited from participating in an offshore.
“When we asked Appleby about the relevant checks, the law firm did not respond, “notes news247.gr. In a relevant question directly to Grabowski, she answered that at the time the question was submitted she was abroad and had not access to the documents in question. However, she said “I think we would have sent all the documents we were asked for, otherwise the company could not operate.”
The involvement of Mitsotakis’ wife in Eternia Capital is not new. She herself had made it public in her CV.
“I have never hidden my absolutely legitimate professional activity in the financial sector, this is also mentioned in my publicly resumed CV, which is accessible to everyone,” she stated in a statement to investigative journalists who submitted a request before they published the article.
Grabowski added in her statement that she had no “right to signature, neither did she participated in the board of directors.”
Eternia Capital Management was dealing with only one fund, the Voyager 360d Ltd. It had no activity after 2012 and was erased from the companies registers in Cayman on January 30th 2015. (full story in Greek in news247.gr)
Mareva Grabowski and Kyriakos Mitsotakis were rejoined as a family in 2013 or 2014 – if I am not wrong.
Publishing the name of Mitsotakis’ spouse triggered an angry reaction by New Democracy.
“The participation of Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis in a company appearing in Paradise Papers has always been legitimate and publicly known,” ND spokeswoman and MEP Maria Spyraki told Skai TV on Wednesday morning. However, she spoke of a “news distribution center” by the Prime Minister’s and claimed that pro-government media simply copy-paste old news in order to harm New Democracy.
PS I never thought that SYRIZA was so powerful to launch an international Paradise Papers “conspiracy” just to harm ND…
