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Managing Director of the construction company ELLAKTOR Leonidas Bobolas has paid to the Greek state treasury the sum of 1.8 million euro to avoid legal persecution for tax evasion.

The Greek daily Kathimerini reports that he had appeared in the Athens prosecutor's office and said that he was ready to pay the amount for the legal proceedings to be abandoned.

The sum of 1.8 million euro includes taxes calculated within the context of the investigation of the Lagarde list and other cases.

The businessman was apprehended and taken to the prosecutor’s office under an order consistent with the fast track procedure. He was informed there that serious charges and a criminal prosecution would be brought against him if he refused to pay the taxes due.

The same sources indicate that Bobolas had to take a decision within a fixed period and now the money is in the state funds. Later he was released. The preliminary investigation of the case will continue and it will probably end with an exculpatory decision since Leonidas Bobolas has paid the entire amount before the initiation of legal proceedings against him.

According to court sources, the total undeclared income of the businessman amounted to 4 million euro. The amount was calculated during the investigation of the lists of Greeks with accounts in foreign banks.

Kathimerini newspaper states that the arrest of Leonidas Bobbles had not been confirmed either by him or by his lawyer. Both were adamant that he had appeared in the prosecutor’s office on a voluntary basis.

According to sources of the newspaper, his father Fotis Bobolas had also paid an amount of 8 million euro as a result of the Lagarde list investigation findings.

Meanwhile, the Greek electricity company DEI had cut off the power supply to the tax service that is investigating the most wealthy Greek citizens and companies. According to the official announcement of the company, it had to cut off the power supply to the whole complex of buildings where the tax administration is located because of unpaid bills to the amount of 1,388,404 euro and due to the non-fulfilment of the agreement on paying the bills in instalments.

DEI suggests that the tax service and the rest of the tenants in the building had paid their share of electricity bills but the managers of the complex had not transferred the full amount to the electricity company, thus accumulating such a huge amount of obligations.

According to the announcement, following the intervention of the Ministry of Finance, some of the tenants had collected the sum of 120,000 euro and paid it to DEI that had subsequently restored the power supply. The company however warns that if the bills are not paid on time the power supply to the complex will be cut off again.

The news was widely discussed on social networks with humorous comments such as, "Let's see whether Minister Nadia Valavani will defend the power supply company or the tax service." Their authors did not forget to point out the fact that she was one of the ideologists of the famous "I do not pay" movement in recent years.