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Former Minister Yiannos Papantoniou is on the verge of facing charges of tax evasion. According to sources, the conclusion of the office combating economic crimes, which is now in the hands of prosecutor Popi Papandreou, will "burn" the former minister and his wife Stavroula Kourakou.

So, it is a matter of time for the prosecutors dealing with economic crimes to raise charges against the family but, before that, the relevant tax service will have to complete the administrative tax audit.

As shown by the results of the financial and tax audit carried out by the office combating economic crimes and ordered by prosecutor Popi Papandreou, the case is about evasions of taxes to the amount of over 3 million euro in the period from 2000 to 2010. For this reason, the prosecutor believes that the former minister and his wife have to be charged with multiple tax evasions to the degree of misdemeanour.

Despite the great amount of tax evasion, under the Greek law, the concealed income must exceed 150,000 euro per year in order for felony charges to be raised.

The inspection has established that Yiannos Papantoniou concealed more than 80,000 euro every year, not exceeding the amount of 150,000 euro, which does not allow the authorities to charge him with a felony.

Moreover, the former minister and his wife will not be charged with money laundering, although the "Lagarde" list had revealed that the family had 1.333 million euro in a Swiss bank account in 2000. However, in the near future, such charges can be raised against them since, as of 2005, the amendments to the relevant law stipulate that tax evasion is a basic crime in cases of money laundering.
 
It should be noted that if the Papantoniou family pay the amount, which they are considered to have concealed, then the charges against them would be annulled.

Easy life

The inspection has established that Yiannos Papantoniou was spending more money than he was earning. The sources of this income have not yet been found but the authorities have announced that they are investigating the armament programmes in which the former minister seems to have been involved. In addition, they have received responses from the relevant authorities abroad to a number of requests for judicial assistance in connection with all persons involved in the case.