A Greek former deputy minister, Yiannis Anthopoulos will appear before a three-member felony court, after the Court of Appeals sent him to trial for the repeated offense of usury.
The 65-year-old former politician and three other people are accused of usury against the owner of a tobacco company based in Kavala, northern Greece. According to the court documents, the owner of the company asked Anthopoulos for help, because she faced major liquidity problems. The former deputy ministry allegedly promised her help and he appeared to mediate in seven tobacco-sale contracts from 2002 to 2005.
In those deals, the Kavala company appeared to sell raw tobacco to another enterprise, while on the same day it appeared to sell processed tobacco to a single-member limited company, for 10% more than the product’s market price. Investigation into the single-member limited company found its manager to be the then-underage daughter of the tobacco company owner.
According to the indictment, the additional 10% was offered to Anthopoulos as an exchange for his usury services. He is thought to have made 1.76 million euros from the seven deals, which investigation found to be fictitious. Furthermore, upon examining the bank accounts of the former deputy minister, investigators found remittances amounting to 700,000 euros.
The accused former minister claims that this money is a loan that came from the owner of the tobacco company. However, the documents show that as of 2005 he failed to return said loan to the owner of the company, who has been in and out of court for seven years.
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