Galery

1

The Athens prosecutor’s office has archived the criminal investigation in connection with the plan of Greece’s former Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis on leaving the euro zone and returning to the drachma.

The investigation of the case began after the Greek media published details of the so-called "Plan B" and aimed to establish whether the non-political persons involved in it would be held criminally liable.

Secretary for State Revenues Catherine Savaidou conducted an interdepartmental investigation into the case as well as the investigation department of the service combating electronic crimes and found no evidence of crimes in either of the cases. Based on these results the Athens prosecutor's office has terminated the investigation.

The prosecutor’s office of the Athens court of second instance is yet to take the final decision on archiving it, having considered whether there are legal grounds for the judgment of their colleagues or if further investigation is necessary.

The judicial authorities began considering the case in July, with the aim to determine whether the non-political participants in the making of "Plan B" should be held criminally liable. In the words of former Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis, the plan was drawn up in a secret way to be applied in the event that negotiations with creditors had failed.

In the course of the investigation, two lawyers submitted claims to the prosecutor’s office, urging the judicial authorities to bring charges against all non-political persons who were involved in the plan on introducing an alternative currency in Greece, as well as the original publication of the newspaper Kathimerini.

The lawyers stated in the claims that the group members should be investigated for violation of the law on personal data protection and the public workers among them for breach of official duties, failure to keep a state secret, currency counterfeiting acts, etc.

The part of the investigation that concerned Yanis Varoufakis in person was submitted for consideration in parliament under the regulations in the law on ministerial responsibility.