Main Greek opposition party embroiled in potential illegal funding from Siemens

[Angelo]

Main Greek opposition party embroiled in potential illegal funding from Siemens
06.19.08, 4:01 PM ET


ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - The Greek main socialist opposition party PASOK is currently embroiled in a local political scandal that involves the potential receipt of illegal funding from the German technology giant Siemens AG.

The allegation is that former high ranking socialist party executive, Theodoros Tsoukatos, a close confidant of former prime minister Kostas Simitis, was sent 420,000 euros (1 million Deutsche Marks) offshore to a friend's private bank account in 1999 which was later transferred to party coffers.

Tsoukatos admitted being visited by senior Greek Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ) executives to discuss a political contribution, but has denied any personal benefit from the transaction which he has argued was made to finance PASOK's political campaigns.

The person in charge of PASOK financial matters at that time, Spyros Avgerinos, denies that the party ever received any funds from Siemens, to the best of his knowledge.

A special judicial inquiry is being held in Greece to examine potential issues of bribery of politicians, civil servants, and illegal political party funding by Siemens. The examination is still ongoing.

George Papandreou, the current leader of the socialist party, said today that any person involved in serious allegations over the Siemens inquiry will have their party membership suspended until they are cleared, and has repeatedly asked for a parliamentary enquiry into the matter.

The ruling conservative New Democracy party has not ruled out a parliamentary enquiry but insists that the judicial enquiry should proceed first and any evidence that comes to light should result in criminal charges pressed by public prosecutors.

Local press in Greece allege that Siemens has paid over 100 million euros to Greek officials to win state contracts.

Greek newspapers say that kickbacks are believed to have been paid to Greek political parties, particularly before the 2004 national elections, as well as to Hellenic Telecoms Organization SA (OTE) staff and officials involved in the construction of Olympic Games venues worth billions of euros.


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[Angelo]

Wow 100 million euros paid to Greek officials .Pasok is nothing but corruption i never liked

this party,I remember back when greece purchased Tor-m1 from Russian we paid like

triple the price for them,thank god a investigation took place and the money was retrieved.

Another investigation should be open about the purchase of 20 transport helos NH-90 that

cost us 657 million euro.{The rest of european countries paid 300 million euro}

[Prokomenos]

Being that Im an electrician I have done a lot of work using wiring devices and equipment from Siemens. These guys are very big and powerful. Im not surprised that they are involved in a scandal.

[TooGreek]

We cannot blame anyone who's being astonished with the latest developments because obviously they know very little about PASOK and it's past.
A scandal centered on George Kosκoτas, a banker and publisher, led to the arrest and investigation of leading Socialists implicating Andreas Papandreou, "the great creator of PASOK", who was somehow . . . :mpa: narrowly acquitted Jan. 1992 of corruption charges (9 to1 in justices votes).
I like to see how Simitis is going to land since the person responsible for receiving the "Siemens goods" was his very own minister of economy & finance.

[Ellinas]

We all know the past of PASOK, but at least they secluded two of their members involved in the Siemens scandal, even overdue. Let's see what ND is going to do, as they most probably have members who were involved in the scandal as well.

[Aniet]

yeah the greek governement is full of corruption byt any other gornment isn't that much better off anyway.....
i prefer the ND to pasok they just seem a bit more trustworthy to me