Former FinMin George Papaconstantinou has been found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of altering a public document – rather than the original felony county – in a high-profile case linked with the so-called “Lagarde List” of Greek depositors in a Swiss bank branch.

The verdict was reached on Tuesday afternoon by a majority vote amongst the justices on the tribunal. The court later returned sentence of a year in prison, although this was suspended for three years, meaning no jail time.

Papaconstantinou, in office during the abortive socialist PASOK government in 2009-2011, was tried by a special appellate level court in Athens, given that the charges against him stemmed from actions while minister.

In handing down the guilty verdict, the court accepted the charges listed in a judicial investigation and subsequent indictment, namely, that the one-time minister deleted three names from the list, which were his cousins.

The “Lagarde List”, named for then French FinMin Christine Lagarde, who handed the information to Greek authorities, purportedly included a list of 2,062 Greek citizens who were depositors at the HSBC branch of Geneva. The intent was to investigate whether the deposits in the Swiss bank branch were declared and previously taxed before export – if generated from revenues or income in Greece.

Proto Thema had previously reported that “judicial circles” had attempted from the trial’s onset to influence a verdict that would exclude the felony conviction, given that such a prospect carries a maximum sentence life in prison.

Conversely, Papaconstantinou was cleared of a charge called attempted breach of faith, a felony count.