Financial prosecutors resign due to interference

Denouncing obstacles and “interference” in their work, both financial crime prosecutors Grigoris Peponis and Spiros Mouzakitis, resigned from office.

Reportedly in the letter of resignation, outside of the interference in their work, they state that they learned of a bill which provided for their replacement. The two prosecutors submitted their resignation to the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Mr. Yiannis Tendes.

Specifically, Mr. Peponis is the economic prosecutor who has in his hands the notorious list of names of debtors who exceed 150000 euros. The Supreme Court, according to the Finance Ministry’s decision, had placed Messrs. Peponis and his deputy, Spiros Mouzakitis, in their respective posts.

Born in 1952, Mr. Peponis joined on 3/9/83 and was promoted to Deputy Appeals Prosecutor on 22/2/05. He served as chief prosecutor of the First Instance Court of Piraeus. During his career he has had many severe prosecutions against shipwrecks and the world of football. He dealt with aspects of the “Express Samina” shipwreck and has pursued prosecutions of medical certificates acquired by former investigating magistrate Constantina Bourboulia in order to support her request for release.

Together with his colleague Antonis Liogas, they investigated the case of “blue” bonds, when the case was at the stage of preliminary examination. Before he was appointed financial prosecutor, he addressed the issue of arms supplies from 1995 to today, based on the allegations of former arms supply director of the Defense Ministry, Evangelos Vasilakos.

From the post of Public Prosecutor, he was determined to thoroughly deal with persons who have outstanding public debts. It is no coincidence that in order to get his hands on the infamous list of names, he had to send the Ministry of Finance three requests, and even threaten with sanctions.

The list reportedly includes the names of 14700 debtors with debts of over 150000 euros. Of these, 6.500 are individuals, freelancers and owners of small and large businesses, while there are also 8200 companies included.

Mr. Peponis attempted to “check” the list, seeking information from the Kifissia IRS, where the large companies are established.

In the text of their resignation, they state the following:

“Despite the general negative sentiment, and being fully aware of the special relationship between the modern Greek reality and Greek financial crime, we accepted the appointment, inspired by our willingness and our deep commitment to serve our duty.

We never sought to become liked, or to ensure the tolerance of the multifarious economic interests, against which our confrontational course based on our legitimacy was a given, and was non-negotiable.

Already in a bill to be tabled, which was made known to us, there are attempts to replace us”.