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A “grocer” with 78 million euro in Switzerland

22 January 2012 / 07:01:19  GRReporter
4258 reads

A large businessman, whose activity is in the field of supermarket chains, was accused through a letter sent to the Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, of the illegal transferring of millions of euro in Switzerland. 

This letter is in the hands of Venizelos, and in the hands of Nikos Lekas, chief of the Economic Crimes Control Office. The writer of the letter is someone who is closely familiar with the relationship of the businessman both with his suppliers and with the Swiss banks.

That businessman has long been fundin New Democracy, and as stated in the complaint, party members have been defending him "tooth and nail" not to be endangered.

It is clear that the writer of the letter, who knows a lot of people and events, sent it directly to the Minister of Finance and to the head of the Economic Crimes Control Office in Athens, keping in mind the fact that the Head of the Office in Thessaloniki was, until a few days ago, Christos Papahatzis, who was arrested. For obvious reasons, sending the letter to him would have been pointless. Also the fact that the letter wasn't sent to Janis Kapeleris, former head of the Economic Crimes Control Office and until recently Chief Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, who was removed because of his involvement in the case of fuel smuggling is very indicative.

Flesh of the flesh

The businessman in question, born shortly before World War II, is a serious and persistent "tenant in the blue co-operation." He’s a personal friend of Panagiotis Psomiadis, he requires that his employees are thorough supporters of New Democracy. During this period, when everything was destroyed, the businessman felt vulnerable because his support in the government was not strong enough.

So apparently the "patriot" businessman, in order to provide even more benefits for himself, took care of the financing, of course secretly and on a personal basis, of senior PASOK members as well, especially those who have access to power.

For this reason, particularly important is the fact that today's finance minister and the head of the Economic Crimes Control Office have this letter in their hands and will therefore be compromised, if they did not proceed immediately to conduct a thorough investigation of this man.

Chronicle of the great deception

Now everyone knows that the greatest problem which the economy is facing at this point is that despite the dramatic decrease in income, prices of the goods on the shelves of supermarkets remain high or even increase against all economic logic. The reason is simple.

Trade in food products in Greece, given that 70% of the consumption is of imported products, operates on the basis of ruthless cartels.

Either by product categories (milk, dairy products, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, meat, etc.), or as trading cartels, based on agreements between owners of supermarket chains with suppliers from the country and from abroad.

The author of the letter to the Minister Venizelos explained that this large businessman has managed for many years to deposit in a secret account in Switzerland the credit invoices and the invoices for services rendered, rather than them being collected, as it should legally and naturally be done, by the joint stock company, of which he is also a major shareholder.

How has the group acted?

Chief "organizer" of the illegal transactions of the big businessman is someone with the initials I. M. from Zurich (in the letter to Evangelos Venizelos his full name and address are stated). Furthermore, the middleman was also an associate (agent) of the Swiss bank UBS.

The fact that the father of I. M. from Zurich is a major supplier of the businessman's supermarket chain in the important department for dairy products is yet another problem. (The name of the supplier company, which is known worldwide in the field of food, is also stated in the letter).

According to the author of the letter, as a result of the cooperation of this "triad", in 2011 the businessman succeeded in depositing the modest amount of 78 million euro in four bank accounts in Switzerland in the name of his wife, his daughter, his son and in his own name.

It is also worth mentioning the fact that according to the author of the letter, in the basement of the luxury villa of the businessman's daughter there are 13 luxury vehicles parked - two Lamborginis, three Ferraris, two Bentleys, two Aston Martins, a Combra, two Hammer H2s and finally a Bugatti worth 1.4000.000 euro.

These data are shown to confirm the truth in the words of the German creditors, who recently publicly accused the Greek businessmen that they do not invest a single euro in Greece, but rather they accumulate wealth abroad by all possible means.

The ways of the group

From the bank in Zurich to his home in Vasilika (on the north side of Hortiatis) the road of one of the "holy trinity" - businessman, father and son IM - is long.

The specific house is mentioned because, according to the letter sent to the Finance Minister, all bank transfers that are related with the illegal transactions of the three partners are stored there, as well as the evidence of the overcharging and the deception.

Minister Venizelos and the management of the Economic Crimes Control Office only have to find the house (something quite easy, since the address has been noted), the bank accounts (they know which is the bank), the credit invoices, as well as any other necessary documents, to make the calculations and find out how the undeclared capital worth dozens of millions of euro has been transferred to Switzerland through ordinary electronic bank transfers from an ordinary laptop.

Tags: businessman supermarket chains investigation illegal transfer of capital abroad Swiss banks
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