Tax scandal in Greece expanding

ATHENS - Agence France-Presse

The Greek prosecution service has questioned two finance ministry officials close to former finance minister George Papaconstantinou, who is caught up in a tax scandal shaking Greek politics, judicial sources said on Jan. 4.

The two officials worked in Papaconstantinou’s office when he was minister from 2009 to 2011.
The source said that the prosecutor Grigoris Peponis had summoned them “with great discretion” for questioning late on Jan. 3. The investigation concerns the alleged falsification of a list of names of people with accounts at HSBC bank in Switzerland.

Judicial information has indicated that the names of people close to Papaconstantinou had been removed from the list. Revelations surrounding the matter on Friday led to the removal of Papaconstantinou, 51, from the membership of the socialist Pasok party. On Dec. 31, 71 members of parliament representing political parties on the right and the moderate left, and the Socialists, which support the governing alliance led by conservative PM Antonis Samaras, laid a proposal before parliament for the creation of a parliamentary commission of enquiry.