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TT Bank Scandal Probe Grows

Former Hellenic Postbank chairman Angelos Filippidis
Former Hellenic Postbank chairman Angelos Filippidis

At least three prominent businessmen, who haven’t been named, have reportedly been implicated in a scheme to scam the failed state-owned Hellenic Postbank out of more than 500 million euros ($677 million) in bad loans, and investigators said they’ve also found 14 million euros ($18.95 million) in in secret foreign bank accounts of its former chairman, Angelos Filippidis.
Filippidis is still in Turkey where he was arrested after Greek officials with the help of Turkish authorities after he was tracked through his cell phone that he used to call Greek TV stations to defend himself.
Greek investigators said they’ve found a series of bribes and kickbacks and at least three prominent businessmen who reportedly benefited from the bad loans, the newspaper Kathimerini said it was told by unnamed sources.
The three, two Greeks and one Cypriot, reportedly received loans between 2008 and 2009, when TT, as it’s called, was chaired by  Filippidis, who is awaiting extradition from Turkey. One of the suspects will reportedly be called to testify imminently.
Meanwhile, authorities are trying to track money flows in Montenegro as officials in the Balkan country have shared information on one of the figures who is believed to have played a key role in the case between 2007 and 2008, it was said.
Besides examing Filippidis’s assets at Millennium Bank, investigators have also reportedly asked Swiss authorities to open his accounts at HSBC Private Bank, Banque Privee and other institutions as they seek to scrutinize the source of his wealth and how it was obtained.
Some 29 people have already been arrested in a purported scheme to defraud the bank, which gave the bad loans without collateral and even to companies with huge debts.
Two people, Kyriakos Griveas and his wife Anastasia Vatsika are being tracked globally by Interpol after they reportedly pocketed about 19.8 million euros ($26.8 million) in unsecured loans from TT. Investigators have frozen the couple’s assets and asked judicial authorities to access their personal and corporate accounts.

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