Read

User menu

Search form

Greek Journalist Who Leaked "Lagarde List" of Tax Evaders Faces Retrial

Greek Journalist Who Leaked "Lagarde List" of Tax Evaders Faces Retrial
Wed, 10/9/2013 - by Helena Smith
This article originally appeared on The Guardian

The journalist who caused uproar in Greece by publishing the so-called 'Lagarde list' of suspected tax evaders with bank accounts in Switzerland, is on trial in Athens on charges of infringing privacy laws.

Almost a year after he was acquitted of the crime, Kostas Vaxevanis was in the dock again on Tuesday after a public prosecutor took the unusual step of demanding he be retried for revealing the identities of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with cash deposits in Geneva.

"What is at stake is the ability of a journalist to exercise his duty as a public watchdog in a case of major public interest," his lawyer, Harris Ikonomopoulos said.

A hotly guarded secret until it was printed by Vaxevanis in his investigative magazine Hot Doc last October, the list details the holdings of 2,059 Greeks at the Geneva branch of HSBC.

Christine Lagarde, the then French finance minister , handed the list to Greek authorities in October 2010 with the express purpose of pursuing tax offenders.

Lagarde, now the IMF's managing director, hoped it would shine a light on tax evasion, widely seen as the root of the debt-stricken country's financial woes.

But instead of putting it to such use, her Greek counterpart George Papaconstantinou has been accused of deliberately failing to act on it. This year, the Greek parliament voted to send the former finance minister to court after MPs found there was enough evidence to suggest he had tampered with the dossier to remove the names of his relatives included in it.

"Other European countries that received similar lists from France investigated the persons and entities on them and collected a significant amount in taxes that had been evaded," Ikonomopoulos said.

"Vaxevanis published the Lagarde list after discovering that Papaconstantinou had received it and done nothing to investigate its content."

The British educated economist has vehemently denied that he erased the names of two of his cousins and their spouses. Instead, he has argued that he has been turned into a scapegoat by an establishment now under intense pressure to clean up the country's scandal-plagued political scene.

Papaconstantinou is much loathed for being the architect of the punitive austerity measures outlined in Greece's first EU-IMF sponsored rescue program.

But the case has also highlighted press censorship.

The demand that the journalist be retried after the public prosecutor's office deemed his initial acquittal to be flawed triggered international condemnation and was met with broad disbelief in Greece.

"It is ridiculous that I am being put on trial for publishing the list when parliament has decided to send the minister who hid it to court," Vaxevanis told the Guardian on the eve of his hearing. "It is tragic that this should be happening when Greek authorities, from the courts to the police, have found it impossible to clamp down on tax avoidance and the extreme right Golden Dawn party, preferring to target journalists who reveal the truth instead."

Originally published by The Guardian

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

Posted 1 week 3 days ago

Former President Donald Trump is growing increasingly deranged, yet the media is asleep at the wheel.

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

Posted 3 weeks 6 days ago

The 2024 Republican ticket’s incitement of violence against Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, is revealing in more ways than one.

Posted 1 month 1 week ago

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Posted 3 weeks 1 day ago

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Right wing organizations, tech bros, alt finance and big oil are all helping to promote a surge in far right politics that are destabilizing the global order, and could end democracies on both sides of the Atlantic.