Former Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, held in detention for 11 months on multiple charges of embezzling, money-laundering and stealing as much as 1 million euros ($1.32 billion) from defense contracts, was sentenced on March 4 to an eight-year jail term and fined 520,000 euros ($675,800) for failing to disclose his wealth as required by law.
It was the least serious of the charges he is facing and the court found he didn’t declare 47,000 euros ($61,000) between 2006-09 and that he didn’t notify tax authorities that his wife, Viki Stamati, also in custody, bought the couple’s mansion under the Acropolis in 2009. The court ordered the property seized and ruled he can not appeal.
He faces a separate trial for the alleged embezzlement of taxpayers’ money when he was defense minister in the late 1990’s and early part of the last decade. Tsochatzopoulos, 73, had denied all the charges against him and threatened to reveal what he said was a culture of corruption among politicians.
Last year he said that, “In front of the judge, I will reveal the plot that has been hatched,” he said. “The former leader of PASOK and representative of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, have formed an unethical front against me with the aim of saving all their ministers and leaving me as the sole person responsible.”
The arrest of Tsochatzopoulos was the first time a high-ranking politician has been charged with such major crimes in recent years and has attracted widespread attention in the media and Greek society with speculation when the former minister would start talking about what many Greeks believe is rampant corruption, bribe-taking and plundering the Greek treasury for personal profit.
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