Greece’s deputy financial crimes prosecutor has called for the indictment of 64 people for their role in the notorious Siemens scandal that implicated government officials for allegedly receiving bribes from the German electronics and engineering giant to secure lucrative deals with the country’s national telecoms company, OTE.
According to the case file submitted by deputy prosecutor Galinos Bris, 64 should face trial on charges of bribery and money laundering over a deal in 1997 – also known as the 8002 contract – with Siemens to digitalize OTE’s telecommunication network.
The investigation had been launched in 2006 by the incumbent financial crimes prosecutor Panayiotis Athanasiou, and the case had dealt a powerful blow to country’s political establishment, further eroding the faith Greeks have towards the country’s politicians.
The prosecutor’s report, containing 2,368 pages, also calls for the indictment of 17 German nationals.
The bribes given to secure the deal allegedly amount to € 69.942 million. Hundreds of bank accounts were opened and investigated in order to find the trail of the bribes.
In 2012, the German giant which has admitted keeping a slush fund to obtain foreign contracts, signed a €330 million settlement with the Greek government which stipulated it would write-off €80m it was owed by the Greek state and guaranteed a further €250m of investment in the country.