Rapid developments in the scandal around Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis, as corruption prosecutor asks banks in Greece to open the accounts of ten politicians, former prime ministers and ministers, allegedly involved in the scandal as well as the accounts of their spouses and adult children.
In a letter to all Greek banks as well as to the Greek Capital Market Commission, corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki asks to receive bank accounts and assets data of ten politicians as well as of their spouses and their adult children. This is information for a total of 38 people. For the ten politicians the case file was submitted to the Palriament in February.
Prosecutor Touloupaki is investigating the possibility of the offense of money laundering from illegal activities.
The prosecutor’s order refers to Antonis Samaras, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Evangelos Venizelos, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Andreas Loverdos, Andreas Lykurentzos, Yannis Stournaras, Adonis Georgiadis, Marios Salmas and Giorgos Koutroumanis, as well as to 28 members of their families.
The prosecutor’s order was made in the context of her investigation into the possibility of committing an offense of money laundering, an offense for which she has the power to investigate politicians after forwarding the case file to the Palriament.
The corruption prosecutor has already issued several other orders to open bank accounts to hundreds of non-politicians who have been involved in the bribery case of Novartis. these orders refer to state employees under investigation for passive bribery, money laundering from illegal activities.
It should be noted that after submitting the case file to the Parliament, the prosecutor has prosecuted the former head of Novartis for felony “bribery jointly and repeatedly”. The prosecutor notes in the indictment that it is “directed against the State” and the benefit for the company was “particularly big.” ( tribune, matrix24, amna)
More on Novartis case here
