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Cl. Papadopoulos: Appointed by George Papandreou and financed N. Papandreou

Cl. Papadopoulos: Appointed by George Papandreou and financed N. Papandreou

Into the "light" comes, yet another aspect of the case of "looting" of the once healthy credit institution

The former chairman of the Hellenic Postbank - and one of the main accused in the case of bad loans-, Cleon Papadopoulos, was appointed president and CEO of Postbank by the government of George Papandreou in 2009.

Indeed, according to press reports of that time, the choice was a surprise to those skilled in the domestic banking sector because, as they said, he had not followed the traditional way of advancement of most executives of Greek banks, which have worked for many years in domestic banks.
However, according to the press reports, he was a personal choice of the then Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, with whom reportedly were classmates at Athens College, while equally important in his appointment was the fact that he was a close friend of the brother of the Prime Minister Nikos Papandreou and of other family members.

Since his appointment until the resignation of Mr. Papadopoulos in 2013, his name has been involved in several "supervised" cases of granting bad loans in off shore companies, to businesses that did not qualify under either minimum credit terms, to politicians and relatives of politicians, for whom the former chairman allegedly had bypassed not only the overall banking stiffness but also the lending code of Postbank.

Shortly before, completing the main investigation into the scandal of the " red- loans " of Postbank and while, according to judicial sources, the facts are allegedly incriminating for the main accused of the case, (i.e. the former president of TT , Mr. Angelos Filippides, his successor Mr. Cleon Papadopoulos and the couple Grivas- Vatsika), Newsbomb.gr today brings to light another aspect of the case "looting" of the once healthy institution.

The letter, which we have in our hands, was send by Nikos Papandreou to the then- powerful chairman of TT Cleon Papadopoulos. In particular, Mr. Papandreou addressed his alleged friend (who was appointed by the government of his brother), Mr. Papadopoulos for a problem with ecological interest: the management of water resources in the basin of river Assopos. In the letter, Mr. Papandreou is updating the "dear Cleon", -as he calls him- , that the Foundation Papandreou deals with serious environmental issues and in this case with the problem of Assopos, noting that the Foundation already supports a large study under the supervision of professor Phoebe Kountouris. He then asks him to fund the project to the tune of 130,000 euros, adding that the EU has stopped anymore to finance studies and the local administration has not the means anymore to support "such a project".