Former finance minister Papaconstantinou's office director testifies in opening trial
The former finance minister George Papaconstantinou's office director Chryssa Chadzi on Wednesday testified before a special court trying the former official for allegedly removing as a minister relatives' names from the so-called Lagarde list, an electronic file with the names of roughly 2,000 Greeks with sizeable accounts in HSBC who were being audited for income tax liabilities.
Papaconstantinou is facing criminal charges of tampering with a public document and attempted breach of trust in a trial that opened earlier today.
Hatzi testified that the former minister had told her that he was expecting a confidential envelope from the Greek embassy in France and that he wanted her to receive it. Later in the afternoon of that day, she received the envelope delivered by an employee at the Greek embassy in Paris.
The witness told the court that the envelope was not registered because she had orders to hand-deliver it to the former minister, noting that she was not aware of its contents.
According to her testimony, in a meeting held afterward Papaconstantinou had said that he had received information about deposits in a Swiss bank amounting roughly to 2 billion euros. In the meeting it was decided that the list would be crosschecked and if necessary a special financial crimes squad (SDOE) unit would be established to carry out the investigation.
She also said that she was not aware if the former minister handed the contents of the envelope to one of his associates and underlined that his office had security and nothing could be stolen from it.
The court adjourned until tomorrow Thursday when more witnesses will be called to testify.
