Andreas Kouris, owner of a Greek television station Alter that shut down after not paying its workers has been found guilty of not paying the state some 9.17 million euros ($14.8 million) deducted from the employees check for health care and social security contributions, but was given only a suspended four-year sentence and a fine of $14,376.
There was no explanation where the money went although his lawyers earlier had said he was making arrangements to pay it back to the state. Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras is moving to change the law to require jail time for tax cheats as it only allows for suspended sentences.
Greece’s international lenders have been pushing the government to get tougher on tax evaders as the government instead readies more tax hikes, pay cuts and slashed pensions on workers, pensioners and the poor and as Greeks have complained that the country’s rich and politicians have largely escaped sacrifice and act with impunity.
Kouris is Chairman of the Real Media company that includes the newspaper Avriani. The TV station shut without warning as employees protested he had kept their wages. They occupied the station for months and put pleas on air explaining their plight.
Kouris claimed that although he was the channel’s Vice President, he was not an executive member of its board of directors and therefore did not legally represent the company. Last year Kouris got a suspended sentence after being found guilty of libeling the Managing Director of the SKAI media group, Yiannis Alafouzos.
(Source: Kathimerini)
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