Oct 28 (Reuters) - Greek police are seeking to arrest the editor of a weekly magazine for
publishing a list of more than 2,000 names of wealthy Greeks who have placed money in Swiss bank accounts, police said on Saturday.
The so-called "Lagarde List" - given to
Greece by French authorities in 2010 with names to be probed for possible tax evasion - has been a topic of heated speculation in Greek media in recent weeks. It is named after International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who was French finance minister when the list was handed over.
The "Hot Doc" magazine published the list of 2,059 names including some well-known figures on Saturday. The magazine said it had been sent the list anonymously. Authorities did not confirm if the list was authentic.
A prosecutor ordered the arrest of editor Costas Vaxevanis for violating laws on releasing private data, police said.
"The prosecutor issued a warrant for Vaxevanis's arrest because he published a list of names without special permission and violated the law on personal data," a police official said.
"There is no proof that the persons or companies included in that list have violated the law. There is no evidence that they violated the law on tax evasion or money laundering," the official added.
The list has inspired heated discussion in near-bankrupt
Greece, where public anger at politicians and the wealthy elite grows as austerity measures take a toll on the poorer sections of society.
(Reuters) - A prominent Greek journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts appeared in court on Monday to stand trial for violating data privacy laws in a case which aroused international concern.
Costas Vaxevanis, editor of the "Hot Doc" weekly magazine, was arrested at the weekend for publishing the "Lagarde List" which French authorities gave to Athens in 2010 so that the account holders could be investigated for possible tax evasion.
The list - and the accompanying saga of how it was passed from one senior official to the next and misplaced at one point without anyone apparently taking action - has riveted Greeks who are angry with a political class which many believe is unwilling to crack down on the wealthy elite.
Vaxevanis's trial was adjourned soon after starting until Thursday. He could face up to two years in prison if convicted.
"I was doing my job in the name of the public interest," Vaxevanis told a crowd of supporters outside court. "Journalism is revealing the truth when everyone else is trying to hide it."
The Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed concern about the case, including Vaxevanis's brief arrest on Sunday.
"I am relieved that Vaxevanis was released from custody after a brief detention, and trust that he will now be tried in a transparent manner considering the acute public interest in the case," OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatovic said.
"It is the responsibility of media as the watchdog of democracy to disclose information in the public interest even if it is considered sensitive by some," he added in a statement.
The list of 2,059 Greek account holders at HSBC in Switzerland features dozens of prominent business figures including a handful of shipping tycoons, companies and two politicians. It also includes a painter, an actress and many listed as architects, doctors, lawyers, and housewives.
The centre-left Ta Nea newspaper reprinted the list on Monday, devoting 10 pages to the accounts which were said to hold about 2 billion euros until 2007. However, the daily said it was not leaping to any conclusions about the list's "content nor the connotations it evokes in a large part of the public".
It stressed there was no evidence linking anyone on the list to tax evasion. Vaxevanis has criticized Greek media - which apart from Ta Nea have avoided any mention of those on the list - for failing to cover his magazine's revelations extensively.
The list has been named after Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund who was the French
finance minister when it was handed over. Greek officials have said the list originates from data a former HSBC employee, Herve Falciani, passed on to French authorities.
The details stolen by Falciani found their way into the hands of tax authorities around Europe which, in apparent contrast to their Greek counterparts, have used the data to turn the heat up on their citizens suspected on tax evasion.
Hot Doc says it received the list from an anonymous sender and authorities have not confirmed its authenticity.
More than a dozen of the more prominent figures who appear on the list declined or were unavailable to comment when contacted by Reuters.
A few, however, have come forward to clear their names.
A well-known journalist, Yiorgos Trangas, said he ended up with a Swiss account inadvertently because he had an account with the Midland Bank in Athens that was later bought by HSBC. He said he severed ties with the bank 12 years ago.
"I wonder: how many people on this 'List' are former clients like myself? How many names have been stitched together in order to serve various motives?" Trangas wrote on his Facebook page.
"Since I've read the list and saw my name on number nine hundred and fifty something, I have come to conclusion that it is...a product, names strung together, and possibly extensively plagiarized. Most importantly, it is unreliable."
"UNACCEPTABLE"
In a separate case, Greek state television suspended two well-known presenters on Monday after they made comments suggesting the public order minister should resign, which the channel said were made without giving him the chance to respond.
The list controversy has highlighted divisions in a near-bankrupt country now in its fifth year of recession, where austerity measures have taken a heavy toll on poorer sections of society. Greece's international lenders - with whom Athens hopes to strike a deal on an austerity package in a few days - have long demanded the country do more to fight evasion.
Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras and at least one lawmaker in the Greek coalition has called for charges against Vaxevanis to be dropped and ridiculed prosecutors for going after the journalist rather than those on the list.
"It is unacceptable that in
Greece, which has been on its knees in recent years, tax evaders are left undisturbed and those who conceal possible evasion are not prosecuted but those who make revelations are," Tsipras said.
Greek authorities say there is no evidence that those included in the list have broken the law, but former ministers have been criticized for failing to make any checks on them.
In testimony before a parliamentary committee last week, George Papaconstantinou, who was finance minister when the list was first handed to Athens, said he gave about 20 names from the list to the financial crimes squad for checks.
He also said he gave a CD containing the list to one of his aides when he stepped down from the post, but that it then appeared to have been misplaced.
"I gave the original file with the letter accompanying it to my office to keep it. Unfortunately I don't know where it is," Papaconstantinou told lawmakers, drawing howls of indignation.
Evangelos Venizelos, leader of the PASOK Socialists and also a former finance minister, said the financial crime squad chief gave him a USB flash drive containing a list a year ago, but he was not sure if this was the original.
Earlier this month, Venizelos said he had handed the drive to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras when he realized no other copy of it existed.
The Samaras government has not commented publicly on the list. A government official said that looking into the list was the job of the justice system since the flash drive had been turned over to investigators.
"This is for the Greek justice system to investigate and we must have answers," the official said. "The Greek government does not interfere with the justice system."
(Writing by Deepa Babington; Additional reporting by Mike Shields in Vienna; editing by David Stamp)
Greek magazine editor in court for naming alleged tax evaders
Kostas Vaxevanis at centre of political storm after publishing names of wealthy Greeks alleged to have Swiss bank accounts
Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis leaves the prosecutor's office following his arrest over the publishing of the so-called Lagarde list. Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA
A magazine editor in
Greece will appear in court after publishing the names of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks alleged to have Swiss bank accounts, triggering a row over tax evasion that threatens the stability of the government.
Kostas Vaxevanis was arrested on Sunday, after his weekly journal, Hot Doc, printed the list of names, which including prominent members of Greece's political and business elite.
The editor was giving a live radio interview when police arrived, and broke off saying he had to go "to be arrested". At the same he tweeted about the arrest, comparing the police to German stormtroopers in the second world war. In another tweet he wrote: "They're entering my house with the prosecutor right now. They are arresting me. Spread the word."
Police officials said that Vaxevanis had illegally published personal details without proof that the people involved had broken the law. But he and other critics of the government have portrayed his arrest as part of a cover-up intended to obscure claims that the finance ministry had had the list for more than two years without taking action against those named.
"If anyone is accountable before the law then it is those ministers who hid the list, lost it and said it didn't exist. I only did my job. I am a journalist and I did my job," Vaxevanis said in the video sent to Reuters news agency.
The case has triggered a parliamentary inquiry and could provide the basis for prosecutions at a time of rising radicalism on both left and right and a sense of injustice over the widespread destitution and despair created by Greece's economic crisis set against the relative impunity of the country's rich, who have a long history of tax evasion.
George Papaconstantinou, a former finance minister, said the Greek tax authorities had failed to act on the list because they were afraid of confronting the country's elite tax evaders. He also claimed that the affair brought to light only a small part of a massive tax evasion problem that was part of what he described as a "broken and corrupt system".
The scandal has its origins in a raid in January 2009 on the French home of a former computer technician for HSBC bank's Geneva branch, Herve Falciani,
accused by the Swiss of selling stolen data on the bank's clients. The French police found computer files on 130,000 potential tax evaders and, to the fury of the Swiss authorities, held on to them and began investigating them.
In mid-2010, the French intelligence service, the DGSE, informed Athens that many of those named in the Falciani dossier were Greek.
Papaconstantinou, then finance minister, asked his French counterpart at the time, Christine Lagarde, to pass it on. It arrived through diplomatic channels in the form of an unlabelled CD containing spreadsheets for the roughly 2,000 accounts now known in Greece as the "Lagarde list". What happened to it next is at the heart of the current political storm in Athens.
"I handed the head of the tax police the 20 people with the biggest balances, and who accounted for about half of the total amount on the files we got from the French authorities, and asked him to see what we could learn by looking at their profiles," Papaconstantinou told the Guardian. "He came back and told me that their profiles did not justify these kind of bank accounts in Switzerland. On the basis of this information, I asked him to go ahead and do a full investigation. I was not happy with the lack of follow-up."
Papaconstantinou told a parliamentary inquiry last week that the French CD stayed at the ministry when he left and he did not know what had happened to it since. He has been lambasted in some parts of the Greek press for having lost it.
"I am being accused of having lost the original. I did not; I gave all the information to the tax police with instructions to investigate, so it is there on the record in electronic form," the former minister said. "The CD of course I left at the office when I left finance. I don't know where it is now, but even that is not the original. It is a copy of a CD which the French authorities have."
Papaconstantinou also rejected the argument presented to parliament by a former tax chief that the data could not have been used for an investigation as it had been illegally obtained, saying: "This information is equivalent to getting an anonymous tip. It is not permissible in court but the tax police are obliged by law to follow it up and use it in their investigations. And they did not."
Papaconstantinou argued that the tax authorities deliberately chose not to pursue information on the list. "My interpretation is they probably got scared. They looked at the names on the list and saw it was full of important people from business and publishing and decided not to go ahead without clear political instructions and cover," he said, adding that the Lagarde list was only the tip of a Greek tax evasion iceberg.
"It is not insignificant [about €1.5bn in total] but the truth is that compared with other lists it's not the treasure trove everyone is looking for," Papaconstantinou said. "There is a list from the Bank of Greece of 54,000 people who took €22bn out of the country. That is official and can be used in court. The first check found 6 billion that can't be justified and letters are going to 15,000 people on that list who will be taxed at the 45% rate."
The former finance minister said measures he took to tighten tax collection still face resistance and delay in the bureaucracy and judiciary, adding: "What we have is a corrupt and broken system."
- Dernière minute. L'arrestation de l’éditeur Kostas Vaxevanis est confirmée.
Que contient cette liste ? Environ 2000 noms de riches Grecs qui ont des comptes en Suisse, dans la banque HSBC, échappant ainsi au fisc de leur pays. Cette liste avait été fournie aux anciens ministres du Pasok (celui de la Défense, Evangelos Venizelos et celui des Finances, Giorgos Papaconstantinou) par Christine Lagarde lorsqu’elle était ministre de l’Economie, des Finances et de l’Industrie. Mais cette liste était visiblement vouée à disparaître. L’un des ministres, G. Papanconstantinou, déclarant qu’il ne savait plus à quel fonctionnaire il avait donné le CD contenant les noms, l’autre déclarant avoir perdu la clé USB avec les précieuses informations. Depuis, la France se tenait prête à la communiquer si le gouvernement grec la lui demandait. Il n’en fut rien.
Alors que la Grèce sombre dans une crise sans précédent, le magazine d’investigation Hot Doc a publié les noms, sans indiquer les comptes ni les sommes. Dans cette liste se trouvent des entrepreneurs ayant obtenu des subventions de l’Etat grec, avant la crise, pour ne pas fermer leurs usines – comme la famille Lamaras, magna du textile, des armateurs, des journalistes et trois personnalités politiques. Aussitôt, la police s’est mise à la recherche… de l’éditeur de la liste. « La police le recherche. Elle l’accuse de divulguer des informations personnelles », explique à humanité.fr Miguel Samotrakis, un des journalistes du magazine Hot Doc joint par téléphone. « La police est même venue dans les bureaux » poursuit le journaliste.
Kostas Vaxenakis, rapidement joint par l’Humanité, s’est dit « très inquiet ».
Bref, il ne fait pas bon dénoncer la corruption alors que des personnes impliquées dans l’affaire Siemens, par exemple (comme Michaël Christoforakos) ne sont pas inquiétées.
Alors que les mouvements sociaux se multiplient en Grèce, que la population – frappée à 25,3% par le chômage – devient chaque jour plus pauvre, et que le rejet de l’austérité est massif, ce sont désormais les journalistes qui semblent empêcher d’exercer leur métier. Déjà, en Grèce, certains ont surnommé Kostas Vaxevanis le « Julien Assange Grec ». Julien Assange est poursuivi pour la publication de documents confidentiels (câbles diplomatiques).
Cet épisode rappelle de sombres heures dans un pays sorti en 1974 de la dictature des colonels.
Un journaliste grec arrêté pour avoir dévoilé une liste de comptes en Suisse
Kostas Vaxevanis a publié quelque 2 059 noms de détenteurs grecs de comptes bancaires suisses.
Un journaliste grec a été arrêté dimanche pour avoir dévoilé les noms d’une mystérieuse liste de détenteurs grecs de comptes bancaires suisses, et doit comparaître devant le procureur d’Athènes, a-t-on appris de source policière.
Le journaliste Kostas Vaxevanis a publié quelque 2 059 noms de la liste transmise en 2010 par Christine Lagarde, à l'époque ministre française des Finances. Le gouvernement prétend que la copie originale de la liste a disparu.
Les réseaux sociaux grecs bruissaient dimanche de commentaires après l’annonce par la police que «sur l’ordre du bureau du procureur d’Athènes», une enquête était menée pour retrouver et arrêter le responsable de la publication du magazine Hot Doc.
«Ils veulent arrêter la vérité»
«Au lieu d’arrêter les voleurs et les ministres violant la loi, ils veulent arrêter la vérité», a commenté Kostas Vaxevanis sur son compte twitter samedi soir.
La liste provient de documents révélés par un employé de la banque HSBC en Suisse. Elle avait été transmise au gouvernement grec en 2010 par l’actuelle patronne du FMI Christine Lagarde. Le ministre grec des Finances de l'époque, George Papaconstantinou, qui en était le destinataire, a affirmé mercredi devant le Parlement qu’il ne savait pas ce qui était advenu de la version originale de la «liste Lagarde».
Mercredi, l’actuel ministre des Finances Yannis Stournaras a déclaré avoir demandé à la France d’en renvoyer une copie. Le nouveau gouvernement de coalition issu des élections de juin avait d’abord exclu d’user contre les auteurs d'évasion fiscale des documents obtenus illégalement, avant de tourner casaque, confronté à la colère croissante de la rue face à une austérité accusée d'épargner les riches et les puissants.
(AFP)
Σάλο προκάλεσε η αποκάλυψη του έκτακτου τεύχους του ΗΟΤ DOC με τη δημοσιοποίηση των 2.059 ονομάτων Ελλήνων καταθετών τα οποία περιλαμβάνονται στην περίφημη λίστα Λαγκάρντ.
Πρόκειται για Έλληνες καταθέτες οι οποίοι διατηρούσαν λογαριασμούς στην τράπεζα HSBC τα στοιχεία των οποίων υπέκλεψε το πρώην στέλεχος της Τράπεζας, Έρβε Φαλτσιάνι.
Η περίφημη λίστα αποτελεί ίσως ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα πολιτικά θρίλερ των τελευταίων ετών. Επί δύο σχεδόν χρόνια περιφέρεται από συρτάρι σε συρτάρι και από τσέπη σε τσέπη, πρώην υπουργών, με τους πρωταγωνιστές της ιστορίας να νίπτουν προκλητικά τας χείρας τους. Η δημοσιοποίησή της από το HOT DOC έχει προκαλέσει σάλο στην κοινή γνώμη.
Ερωτηθείς για το θέμα ο δημοσιογράφος Γιώργος Τράγκας, το όνομα του οποίου περιλαμβάνεται στην λίστα Λαγκάρντ παραδέχτηκε ότι τα χρήματα αυτά τα τοποθέτησε στην Ελβετία μεταξύ του 2001 – 2002, ωστόσο ισχυρίζεται ότι οι
κατάλογοι αυτοί είναι παλαιοί και ενδεχομένως δεν ταυτίζονται με τη λίστα που παρέδωσαν οι Γάλλοι στον Γιώργο Παπακωνσταντίνου.
Παράλληλα, ο δημοσιογράφος Π. Λάμψιας ισχυρίστηκε ότι η λίστα είναι προϊόν πλαστογραφίας. «Ουδέποτε είχα ή έχω λογαριασμό σε τράπεζα του εξωτερικού ούτε φυσικά στην HSBC. Σε ότι με αφορά πρόκειται περί υπόθεσης πλαστογραφίας».
Οι εξελίξεις ωστόσο αναμένονται ραγδαίες, ειδικά σε πολιτικό επίπεδο. Ήδη από χθες η δημοσιοποίηση των ονομάτων αποτελεί πρώτο θέμα συζήτησης στους βουλευτές όλων των κομμάτων.
Αυταπάγγελτη δίωξη άσκησε ο εισαγγελέας υπηρεσίας ημέρα Σάββατο, λίγες ώρες αφού κυκλοφόρησε το HOT DOC που δημοσιεύει τη λίστα Λαγκάρντ με τα 2.059 ονόματα ελλήνων που διατηρούσαν λογαριασμούς στην ελβετική HSBC στο δημοσιογράφο Κώστα Βαξεβάνη για παραβίαση του νόμου περί προσωπικών δεδομένων.
Η Δικαιοσύνη που για τρία χρόνια κωλυσιεργεί, κάνει τα στραβά μάτια και παρακολουθεί νωχελικά σαν απλός παρατηρητής την πολιτική ηγεσία της Ελλάδας με κορυφαίους υπουργούς της κυβέρνησης, να πετούν ο ένας στον άλλο το μπαλάκι των ευθυνών εκπλήσσει για μία ακόμη φορά, με τα «αντανακλαστικά» της.
Πρόκειται για προκλητική δίωξη στο πρόσωπο ενός δημοσιογράφου που τόλμησε να δημοσιεύσει μέσω του περιοδικού του, ονόματα ανθρώπων που κρατούνταν όμηροι εκβιασμών και λασπολογίας. Προκαλεί εντύπωση το γεγονός ότι επικαλούνται προσωπικά δεδομένα, την ώρα που η συναλλαγή με την οποιαδήποτε τράπεζα γίνεται δημόσια. Επειδή σεβόμαστε ούτως ή άλλως το δικαίωμα του καθενός να διατηρεί λογαριασμό γι αυτό και ενσυνείδητα δεν δημοσιεύσαμε, αν και τα έχουμε στη διάθεσή μας, τα ποσά που περιέχονται στους εν λόγω λογαριασμούς.
Η πρόκληση δε είναι ακόμη μεγαλύτερη, γιατί η Δικαιοσύνη για μία ακόμη φορά αντί να στραφεί εναντίον αυτών που λασπολογούν-εκβιάζουν-κοροϊδεύουν έναν λαό στρέφονται κατά εκείνων που επιδιώκουν με αξιοπρέπεια την αλήθεια.
Αναβολή της εκδίκασης της υπόθεσης για 1η Νοεμβρίου αποφάσισε η έδρα μετά από αίτημα του συνηγόρου υπεράσπισης του Κώστα Βαξεβάνη, Νίκου Κωνσταντόπουλου. «Τα 2 τελευταία χρόνια γίνoνται νομικισμοί και επικαλούνται νόμους για απόκρυψη της αλήθειας. Δεν υπάρχει παραβίαση κανενός προσωπικού δεδομένου. Όταν άλλα μέσα δημοσίευσαν φωτογραφίες με τα πρόσωπα των οροθετικών ιερόδουλων, η εισαγγελία αποφάνθηκε ότι επιτρέπεται για λόγους υπεράσπισης του δημοσίου συμφέροντος. Για την υπεράσπιση του δημοσίου συμφέροντος, έκανα τη δουλειά μου. Δημοσιογραφία είναι να αποκαλύπτεις την αλήθεια όταν οι άλλοι πάνε να την κρύψουν. Όλα τα άλλα είναι δημόσιες σχέσεις», δήλωσε ο Κώστας Βαξεβάνης. Στο πλευρό του βρέθηκαν ο πρόεδρος της ΕΣΗΕΑ, Δημήτρης Τρίμης και ο πρόεδρος της ΠΟΕΣΥ, Γιώργος Σαββίδης και ο βουλευτής Παναγιώτης Κουρουμπλής.
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