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A Greek banker, expensive properties, family ties and questionable property deals are the components of the new brawl, which flared up in Greece after a publication of Reuters’ investigative journalist Stephen Grey exposing the head of Piraeus Bank - Michalis Sallas.

In it, he reveals a chain of companies related to Sallas that bought expensive properties with loans from Piraeus and then, the same companies rented the property to the bank. Later, the properties were sold to the tenant - Piraeus Bank in this case - at double the price. The most unusual property deals involved companies managed by Sallas’ wife - Sophia Staikou, his daughter Myrto and his son George.

Similar is the case with a real estate in Athens purchased by the company MGS, which was headed by Sophia Staikou. This real estate was purchased in 2003 for 1.1 million euro but the loan for it taken from Piraeus was 2.4 million euro. Then, the same real estate was rented to the bank. In April 2006, MGS sold the real estate located in the city centre for 975,000 euro to the businessman of Libyan origin Philip Moufarrige, who was based in London. Nine days later, Moufarrige sold the same property to Piraeus Bank for 2.65 million euro. When the Reuters reporter contacted him, Moufarrige denied he was involved in the case. "I have never owned property in Athens. This was done without my knowledge." According to the information, the passport details recorded in the documentation were accurate, but the address in London was not.

There were several similar cases, in which property deals were carried out with loans from the bank and by companies owned by persons closely tied with Sallas. The story was revealed last year after several Greek blogs, WikiGreeks.org and Kathimerini published a document stating that Piraeus Bank had granted loans worth 250 million euro, which were later written off. The bank sued for defamation a former employee of Piraeus - Angeliki Agoulou, who was a manager of a branch of the financial institution.

Greek companies whether public or private are not required to disclose publicly all of their shareholders. An inspection of the Official Gazette, however, where companies publish their financial results, showed a close connection between companies managed by individuals associated with Sallas, including family members and several former senior officials at Piraeus. Stephen Grey’s investigation revealed that Sallas family members managed 11 companies that had deals with Piraeus. They not only took loans to buy property, but also rented the property to Piraeus and then, sold them to third parties (often related to the bank management), which in turn sold them to Piraeus for double the amount.

Reuters sought several accounting experts to comment. They firmly stated that the rental agreements between these companies should have been defined as "related party transactions," which was not observed. Under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adopted by Piraeus in 2005, such transactions must be disclosed in the financial statements of the bank so as to clarify any potential conflicts of interest.

“The fact there are family members on the board of a company doing business with a bank is enough to suggest a potential conflict of interest,” said Grant Kirkpatrick, deputy head of corporate affairs at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. PriceWaterhouseCoopers was the external auditor of Piraeus for years but declined to comment to journalists.

It seems that while Stephen Grey was carrying out his investigation of the suspicious deals of Piraeus he had no chance of getting  a response from Sallas family. After his findings were published, responses were not late. Piraeus made an official statement accusing Grey of using data of unknown origin in order to vilify Michalis Sallas and his family. It denies the involvement of the bank in any wrongdoing and reads, "The work of Mr. Grey and his team prior to the current publication is subject to criminal investigation initiated by Piraeus Bank."