By G. Palaitsakis
The once sensational proclamations and media headlines regarding massive tax evasion in Greece, as ostensibly illustrated by the so-called “Lagarde” and “Borjans” lists of Greek citizens with overseas bank deposits, have proved political “fool’s gold”, with a most recent judicial decision saying all related cases, regardless, are now beyond the statute of limitation for audit and subsequent legal action.
A previous ruling by the Council of State (CoS), Greece’s highest administrative court, gave Greek prosecutors and tax auditors five years to investigate, indict and prosecute alleged tax evaders and tax dodgers. The latest, supplemental, ruling rejected Greek tax authorities’ subsequent argument of a need to extend the five-year statute of limitation in cases where “supplementary evidence” arose, information that was impossible for authorities to have knowledge of in the prior period.
The ruling was issued by an appellate-level administrative court in Athens.
The same three-justice court specifically ruled that Greek tax authorities had the ability to request and receive information on bank transactions, from Swiss authorities, involving Greek citizens on the “Lagarde list”, i.e. depositors with the HSBC branch in Geneva. The list was given by former French finance minister and subsequent IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde to her then Greek counterpart, Giorgos Papaconstantinou, back in October 2010.
Foot-dragging by Greece’s notoriously sluggish public sector continued over several years and throughout four separate governments, including the current Tsipras government, which has held power (January 2015 – present) longer than any other administration in the bailout-era.
While some depositors on the list settled accounts with the Greek state by voluntarily paying taxes on deposits, the notion of “billions of euros from tax evasion proceeds exported abroad” fizzled out.
