Official's Cousin Steps Down Amid Probe
ATHENS—The cousin of a former Greek finance minister, implicated in a scandal
over a list of wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, has submitted her
resignation as adviser to the country's privatization agency, an official at the
agency said on Wednesday.
Eleni Papaconstantinou, who was appointed as a legal consultant to the agency in September, offered her resignation to avoid entangling the agency in a probe stemming from the so-called Lagarde List, the official said. Ms. Papaconstantinou couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
The list was drawn from data obtained by former employees of HSBC's HSBA.LN -0.62%Geneva branch, who electronically copied details of 24,000 clients, with the aim of selling those details to European governments trying to track tax evasion among their citizens, said people familiar with the matter.
The information wound up in the hands of French tax authorities, as well as those of Italy and Spain. The French tax authorities said they acquired the list in 2008 when they raided the home of one of the former HSBC employees at the request of the Swiss government. In 2010, the French tax authorities began distributing a copy of the list, which they had kept, to their counterparts in Italy and Spain. All three countries started probes to recover unpaid taxes.
In December, a Spanish court said it would release an Italian-French citizen sought by Swiss police in connection with the theft of banking data, pending a final decision on a possible extradition to that country.
This week, Greece's government asked parliament to investigate whether ex-Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou—who was given the list by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in 2010—had tampered with the document listing 2,062 Greeks with offshore bank accounts.
The move came after prosecutors disclosed that some of Mr. Papaconstantinou's relatives, including Ms. Papaconstantinou, had fallen off the list sometime after it was handed to Mr. Papaconstantinou. Prosecutors said the list they saw in October had 2,059 names.
Mr. Papaconstantinou has said he removed no names from the list. Ms. Papaconstantinou, an attorney by profession, said in her resignation letter that the account she jointly held with her husband at the Swiss branch of HSBC and identified on the later version of the list was completely legal, the agency official said.
The disclosure this fall that government officials had in 2010 received a list that could lead them to potential wealthy tax evaders—and that officials hadn't pursued these leads amid two years of recession and painful austerity measures—has touched off months of controversy.
The privatization agency's board will meet in coming days to consider the resignation, the official said.
Eleni Papaconstantinou, who was appointed as a legal consultant to the agency in September, offered her resignation to avoid entangling the agency in a probe stemming from the so-called Lagarde List, the official said. Ms. Papaconstantinou couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
The list was drawn from data obtained by former employees of HSBC's HSBA.LN -0.62%Geneva branch, who electronically copied details of 24,000 clients, with the aim of selling those details to European governments trying to track tax evasion among their citizens, said people familiar with the matter.
The information wound up in the hands of French tax authorities, as well as those of Italy and Spain. The French tax authorities said they acquired the list in 2008 when they raided the home of one of the former HSBC employees at the request of the Swiss government. In 2010, the French tax authorities began distributing a copy of the list, which they had kept, to their counterparts in Italy and Spain. All three countries started probes to recover unpaid taxes.
In December, a Spanish court said it would release an Italian-French citizen sought by Swiss police in connection with the theft of banking data, pending a final decision on a possible extradition to that country.
This week, Greece's government asked parliament to investigate whether ex-Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou—who was given the list by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in 2010—had tampered with the document listing 2,062 Greeks with offshore bank accounts.
The move came after prosecutors disclosed that some of Mr. Papaconstantinou's relatives, including Ms. Papaconstantinou, had fallen off the list sometime after it was handed to Mr. Papaconstantinou. Prosecutors said the list they saw in October had 2,059 names.
Mr. Papaconstantinou has said he removed no names from the list. Ms. Papaconstantinou, an attorney by profession, said in her resignation letter that the account she jointly held with her husband at the Swiss branch of HSBC and identified on the later version of the list was completely legal, the agency official said.
The disclosure this fall that government officials had in 2010 received a list that could lead them to potential wealthy tax evaders—and that officials hadn't pursued these leads amid two years of recession and painful austerity measures—has touched off months of controversy.
The privatization agency's board will meet in coming days to consider the resignation, the official said.
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