Former minister of state Alekos Flambouraris, one of SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras’ closest confidants, on Wednesday attempted to deflect revelations by Proto Thema showing he was the majority shareholder of a construction company that assumed a public sector contract while he was a Cabinet member.

The embattled ex-minister presented a private contract — date stamped at a … police precinct on Jan. 26, 2015 but never submitted to the relevant tax bureau — showing a transfer of his shares to his partner in the firm, Yiannis Kottaridis.

When he announced his departure from the construction firm Diatmisi after the Jan. 25 election, Flambouraris’ son assumed the post of vice-president in the company, succeeding his father.

As such, the private contract transferring the shares (50.01 percent of the company’s total) and specifying the installment payments can only be verified by Flambouraris, his son, his business partner and the buyer of the shares, and finally, the police officer on duty at the time the contract was presented for a stamp.

The contract was not submitted to the tax bureau nor was the contract composed and affirmed by a notary public.

Another noteworthy highlight of the private contract unveiled on Wednesday is the fact that the 1.05-million-euro total sale figure for the 77-year-old civil engineer’s shares is spread out until 2018, with the first payment slated for November 2015!

In a later development, a report by the news site thetoc.gr states that the relevant law governing share transfers, Law 3310 of 2005, holds that such transactions in companies doing business with the public sector must be exclusively conducted via contracts prepared by a notary public, and definitely not through a simply affirmation of an original signature on a piece of paper containing terms of a private contract.

According to legal circles, the transfer of the shares, as presented by Flambouraris, is null and void.