Tsochatzopoulos flanked by plain-clothes police yesterday

Tsochatzopoulos and family also face tax, money-laundering charges

Elections put back a week to May 6th

Earlier this year with the help of guidance and documents supplied by Athenian contacts, The Slog posted extensively about graft in Greek government circles, and specifically the corrupt purchase of two submarines from Germany.

In that article, I alleged ‘But it is the now even more heavily burdened taxpayers of Greece who are paying the price for this crude rip-off. Most of the perpetrators are doing very nicely thank you. For example, Ferrostaal worked with Yannis Beltsios and paid him €1 million because Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopolous instructed them to…’

Yesterday [Wednesday] Akis Tsochatzopoulos was arrested by police, and charged with money-laundering in relation to submarine purchases. Yesterday morning, an unmarked police car pulled up outside the luxury home of the former minister – a dwelling  his wife bought for cash some years ago for more than 1 million euros…..from an offshore company. The house, which is on the Dionysiou Areopagitou walkway in one of Greece’s most expensive residential areas, has been impounded.

But Tsochatzopoulos immediately labelled his arrest a “pre-election gift” for his former party and New Democracy, designed to make the two main Parties look ‘clean’ as they are lagging behind in the polls. Both PASOK and New Democracy awarded themselves the bulk of a 29m euro paxpayer-funded grant towards election expenses last week. And yesterday, Prime Minister Papademos announced an election date of May 6th. This is a week later than the date he gave to EU officials last month.

“The theory here is that the big Parties want more time to regain ground,” a Brussels source told The Slog last night, “but as to whether this arrest is a conspiracy, I would have no idea”.

This weekend is Easter in Greece. Tsochadzopoulos, 72,  will appear before magistrates on Monday. A conviction on such charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. He was one of the top officials in Greece’s majority PASOK party for 25 years, and narrowly lost a vote to become party leader — and prime minister — in the mid-1990s. He also faces further charges of submitting false income declarations.

Police later announced further arrests: Tsochadzopoulos’ cousin and his accountant. His wife and daughter face charges of complicity in money-laundering.

But here’s an interesting twist: Akis Tsochatzopoulos was investigated for alleged bribery last year, but the case was dropped because the statute of limitation shields politicians from most forms of prosecution in Greece. This law was personally authored by….Evangelo Venizelos. However, Venizelos’ Party PASOK expelled him after last year’s bribery investigation. And this meant he could face the same charges as every other Greek citizen…and become a convenient  scapegoat?

This is Greece: anything is possible.

Related: Venizelos, endemic bribey, and an overflowing bank account