They are bringing Akis to justice

The die is cast for the preliminary examination committee investigating the case of the submarines, the outcome of which brings evidence of “money laundering”, resulting in the possibility of Akis Tsohatzopoulos’ being brought to justice.

According to information, the people who support the committee’s work have looked at accounts, identified remittances and isolated real estate contracts, all under the effective leadership of president Markos Bolaris, who appears determined to shed light on every aspect of the scandal.

They’ve put together a revealing puzzle that traces the route of “suspicious” transfers starting from Switzerland and ending in accounts owned by the Torcasso offshore company, which invests in buying property – including Tsohatzopoulos' house in Dionysiou Areopagitou.

Under these circumstances, Akis Tsohatzopoulos’ deposition to the preliminary investigation committee of the parliament, scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday 31.05.2011, is expected with great interest.

Some even characterize the move of the former minister to ask in writing for the KYSEA invitation to tender in1999-2000 (when the contract for the supply of submarines was signed) as a “act of panic”, which is attributed to the findings emerging from both the investigation and preliminary investigation conducted by SDOE.
 
SDOE, the cousin and the remittances

In detail, it was the deposition of Nikos Maitos, the Attica regional director of SDOE who is investigating the finances of Tsohatzopoulos, which placed Torcasso, a company known from the Vatopedi real estate case, at the heart of the submarine scandal.

It should be noted that until 2003, Nikos Zigras, a cousin of Tsohatzopoulos', appeared to  be the manager of this company. So, according to Maitos, in the period of 1999-2000 3 remittances totaling 6.7 million U.S. dollars were deposited into a company's account in Cyprus from a Morgan Stanley account in Switzerland (4.5 million dollars on November 1 1999, 1.2 on January 10 2000 and 1 million on March 7 2000).

Of course, the question remains unanswered as to who the original depositor of the remittances is, although reports indicate that the answer is known to Mihalis Matantos, a person who, according to German justice, is involved in the scandal.

However, shortly after, Torcasso transferred the amount into its account in Greece. This information, presented by the senior member of SDOE, has prompted the people who support the committee's work to trace the route of the “suspicious” transfers.

According to information, the evidence that will reach the committee in the coming days will prove that in November 1999, a few days after the deposit of the first “suspicious” remittance, of 4.5 million dollars in the Torcasso accounts, the company bought real estate in Athens (including the property in Areopagitou), paying around 2 billion drachmas, a lot higher than their objective value.

An impressive aspect is that on November 18 1999, three contracts were drawn up with the same seller and Torcasso as the buyer. Each contract was drawn up in the same place but by a different notary, while they were deposited on different dates and therefore in different books. According to those who know about title deeds, such a technique is used to hide the tracks in cases of “money laundering” via real estate transactions.
 
They are bringing Akis to justice

The impressive collection of data by the team assisting the work of the preliminary investigation committee will be the main “body” of the findings, which will be delivered on June 6 without a request for an extension of the procedures, as stated by Bolaris.

In essence, the findings will present strong evidence as to the possible commission of money laundering from illegal activities by Tsohatzopoulos, before they even get to the point, which will bring the former minister to justice. More specifically, the analysis will state that the offense falls outside a minister’s purview; therefore, under the law on ministerial responsibility, it should be investigated by justice and not by the parliament.
 
Scandals with a common denominator

It is particularly impressive that the Torcasso offshore company appears in all the major scandals that have occurred in our country in recent years. Investigations into the “black” funds of Siemens, the “unholy” exchanges of the Vatopedi Monastery and the bribes in the case of the submarines, all identified “suspicious” remittances which led to the specific company. Coincidence? Those familiar with these cases believe that the emergence of the company and the name chosen by its founders did not happen by chance, suggesting that it might be “involved” in other cases of military equipment supplies.

However, a study in the Athens Land Registry shows that the properties purchased by Torcasso, at the Komna Traka and Kefalinias intersection and in Maroussi, a few days after the “suspicious” remittance from Switzerland accepted by the company in November 1999, were sold to the Vatopedi monastery in 2007 for 9.7 million euros, while the mansion at Dionysiou Areopagitou, owned by Torcasso, ended up in the hands of the Tsohatzopoulos family…