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Tag: John Psaropoulos
Judge had courage to go against the prosecutor (November 21 2012) Judge had courage to go against the prosecutor (November 21 2012)

Kostas Vaxevanis the 46 year old Greek journalist and founder editor of the magazine Hot Doc, has been acquitted of charges relating to his publishing of the ‘Lagrade List’ of possible tax cheats. In an Aljazeera article titled ‘Crusading Greek journalist acquitted’, John Psaropoulos states “The late night acquittal … was met with an eruption of applause in courtroom number one, building two, of the Athens judicial compound. “The court has found you innocent,” was all the judge had time to say. Vaxevanis had faced a year in prison and a 30,000 euro ($38,500) fine for allegedly breaching Greek privacy law. His offence was to publish the names of what purports to be the infamous Lagarde List, a spreadsheet of more than 2,000 influential Greeks with Swiss bank accounts who might warrant investigation as tax evaders. It is named after the former French finance minister, now IMF chief, who handed it to her Greek counterpart, Yiorgos Papakonstantinou, in 2010. “A junior court judge had the courage to go against the prosecutor’s office which created all the fuss in the first place, to listen to society, to see the results of all this activity surrounding the revelation of the list and of course to see the truth.” Vaxevanis told Al Jazeera after the verdict was announced. …Vaxevanis offered an explanation as to why authorities have been so loath to prosecute the list. “Greece is being governed by a closed group of interests… comprising businesspeople, politicians and a few journalists,” he said. “The Lagarde List is a document that proves what everyone suspects – that a powerful elite… enjoys the privilege that no one dares move against them.”

 

Inspired by John Psaropoulos ow.ly/fmSms image source Facebook ow.ly/fmSfk

Naming and shaming hits Greece (November 13 2012) Naming and shaming hits Greece (November 13 2012)

John Psaropoulos the Greek Freelance journalist and Director of Development for AKTO College in Athens has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Naming and shaming hits Greece’ highlighting how a new website dedicated to sharing stories on corruption in the public sector is creating a flutter. Psaropoulos states “…Greece’s first website dedicated to sharing stories of corruption in the public sector. The response has been impressive – after just two weeks online, the site has logged 40,000 visitors and highlighted more than $85,000 in bribes requested and paid. “What we’ve noticed is how incredible the bribes can be,” says Panos Louridas, one of several volunteers who built the website. “The funniest thing I saw was a hospital patient who had bribed staff to allow his wife to sleep in an empty second bed in his room. It was reported by a patient in an adjacent room.” Anyone can make an anonymous entry on teleiakaipavla.gr, loosely translatable as “Stop it. Period”. Names and dates are not mentioned, but institutions are – the top eight by number of entries are hospitals. …The site is a cast list of corrupt characters: the tax collector who blackmails a business, the surgeon who turns public healthcare into private practice, an official who wants a grigorosimo, or speed-up fee to avoid delays. Corruption is a big part of Greece’s unrecorded and untaxed economy, estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at roughly $90bn this year, dwarfing the deficit of $17bn. …”It is well known that the vast majority of tax collectors is deeply corrupt,” says a former minister who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This shop cannot be easily fixed. You have to break lots of eggs.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/f5pmV image source Aljazeera video

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