My cousin’s offshore companies? Coincidence! My wife’s remittances? A mistake!

He did not give convincing answers about the offshore companies, was deemed a flight risk and liable to commit new offenses, and faces a very heavy indictment which he failed to rebut even at  minimum level, all this while the infrastructure with offshore companies and a network of real estate transactions through which, according to justice, he laundered money (the product of corrupt contracts for armament programs), still remains as the judicial investigations have identified only part of it.

According to information, this is the rationale of investigator Gabriel Malis and prosecutor Nikos Voulgaris, who maintained that the former PASOK minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos must go to jail, after his marathon plea and the clarification questions which were submitted to him.

Accompanied by his lawyers and appearing relatively calm, the former minister passed the office door of the examining prosecutor at around 10 am on Monday. He greeted journalists, to whom he also apologized for bringing them to the courts on the second day of Easter. And he gave a 15-page statement to the prosecutor, although his case file contains more than 10,000 pages.

According to reports, the former minister requested a new deadline for his plea, a request that was denied by the trial judge, with the whole scene pointing to ignorance of the risks involved on the part of the former minister, who seems unable to believe that the situation is so serious.

After about two hours for the study of his statement, Mallis started asking the former minister clarification questions.

He tried to “divide” responsibilities

Tsohatzopoulos was persistently asked by the prosecutor regarding the case of German submarines and the money allegedly received by a "commission" through offshore companies from the German consortium called Ferrostaal. According to information, the former minister reportedly said that the "green light" to implement these agreements was given by KYSEA and the committees that ruled accordingly. However, according to the indictment, these committees were recommended by himself through one of his decisions.

Based on the same information, when asked about the network of offshore companies and his cousin Nicholaos Zigras, who had assumed management of many of them according to the findings of prosecutors Helen Kyvelou and Eugenia Siskou, Tsochatzopoulos allegedly spoke about a simple coincidence.

One of the questions referred to the remittance identified in an account of Catherine Stamatis, an aunt to his wife, Vicki Stamatis. According to the prosecutor’s conclusion, it is a 3-million-drachma remittance in 2001 from an offshore company with Tsohatzopoulos as the recipient.

C. Stamatis withdrew the whole amount in just one day, although the only remittances in that account came from her pension of just 700 euros. To this, the former minister reportedly replied that it was a bank error and that he and his wife bear no responsibility for it.

Apparently he spoke of a political conspiracy against him and said that whatever he did with the armament programs he did for the best interest of our country. He even talked about lapsed accusations and of invalidity of the warrant under which he was arrested and brought before the prosecutor.

Possibly to Korydallos

After his plea, Tsohatzopoulos left the court visibly run down and without making any statements. His lawyers referred to the statement that they will give to the public on Tuesday morning.

After this developmentit is likely his lawyers will challenge the warrant under which he was arrested.

After his plea, he was taken to Police HQ and on Tuesday he is expected to be transported to prison, possibly to Korydallos.

Pleas will continue

In order to enter a plea on money laundering, Tsochatzopoulos’accountant, Euphrosyne Lampropoulos, who for a decade or so has appeared as the managing director of offshore companies that were involved in the trail of black money and the acquisition of luxury real estate properties, but also his cousin, Nikolaos Zigras, who according to the prosecutor had a key role in the case, will both be taken to the magistrate on Tuesday.

Zigras has also allegedly been the manager of offshore companies since 1997 with Tsohatzopoulos as the beneficiary owner. A plea will also be entered by G. Sachpatzidis, the businessman allegedly representing the Vatopedi Monastery in the transfer of three properties on Kifissias Avenue, with Tsohatzopoulos as the seller.

Pleas are expected to continue with about ten more people, among them members of the former minister’s family facing the same charge as him, whose names are listed in the prosecutorial report.

Businessman Asterios Economides will also face jail time, as he is involved in the renovation of the neoclassical residence of the former minister on Dionysiou Areopagitou.