The political scene has been thrown into turmoil by the judiciary’s decision to lift the protection status of “hooded” witnesses to Novartis six years after the start of the high-profile case, which was presented as the biggest scandal since the creation of the state, only to turn out to be the darkest political plot of the post-junta era.

The victims of the blatant plot glorified by the famous “Rasputin mechanism” during the Syrizas – AN.EL. government have already announced that they will demand, in addition to criminal prosecution, the civil prosecution of Filistoros Destebasidis and Maria Marangelis. These are the two individuals who were hiding behind the hoods codenamed “Maximos Sarafis” and “Ekaterini Kelesi” until last Thursday, enjoying full criminal immunity, although what they had denounced against the 10 political figures turned out to be unspeakable lies.

Now, the former “hooded men” will be summoned by the Greek justice system to provide explanations, while they will also face lawsuits worth several million euros for the damage they caused to their victims. The questions that the executive members of the conspiracy will be asked to answer will be relentless and will, by all accounts, be aimed at uncovering the perpetrators.

The statement by former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is typical: “The causes and protagonists of this misery will be revealed… The time of truth is coming. Until the end. For everything and for everyone!”. Equally characteristic is the reference of Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis: “The main thing here is to reveal who put them there, because it is impossible that they alone could have thought up such monstrous lies.”

In the court without a hood

It should be noted that there is no question of a statute of limitations on any offences the two former protected witnesses may have committed. Since they have had all these years of criminal immunity, the statute of limitations for their possible offences starts to run from the moment of their de-criminalisation. In fact, according to information, the Prosecutor’s Office has already been informed by the Financial Prosecutor Panagiotis Kapsimalis about the removal of the protection status so that the lawsuits of the political persons – and private individuals – whose names were involved in the Novartis case, because of what the two witnesses testified, can be immediately taken out of the drawer for examination.

The aim is for the competent prosecution authorities to decide whether, based on these complaints, there is a case for criminal prosecution for offences such as perjury, false testimony and slander.

Moral and political vindication

The same sources note that the relevant judicial proceedings are expected to begin immediately, and are likely to lead to new revelations that will cause a political earthquake about the works and days of the SYRIZA – AN.EL. government, but also about the political figures who coordinated the famous “Rasputin mechanism.” Already several members of the opposition are quick to distance themselves from the then manipulations of their comrades.

However, experienced legal experts tell “Proto Thema” that possibly new evidence of active participation of specific political figures of the then government in setting up the plot will strengthen the moral and political vindication of the 10 victims. However, they will probably not be able to take the case to a new Special Court, as the relevant amortization period has expired.

The catalyst and the €56 million “ransom”

The catalyst for the removal of the protection status was the changes to the Criminal Procedure Code brought last February by Justice Minister George Florides and Deputy Minister Yannis Bougas. An addition to Article 218 gave the competent prosecutor the ability to continuously review and revoke the special status whenever he or she deems that the reasons for protecting witnesses no longer exist.

As a political fuse that finally caused the removal of the hood, the revelation of “Proto Thema” (14.7.2024) about the 56 million euro “ransom” distributed by the executive officers of the Novartis conspiracy in the US acted as a political fuse that finally caused the removal of the hood. According to reports, “Sarafis” – “Kelessis” received for their services from 5-6 million euros each and only Nikos Maniadakis did not get any money, while he revealed all the pressures he received in order to incriminate politicians.

Around €30 million was received on behalf of witness clients by Pavlos Sarakis, a lawyer, former Hellenic Solution MP and now an independent, who said: “My involvement in the Novartis case was exclusively with the US Justice Department. The Greek side of the case does not concern me and I have nothing to comment on anything concerning its protected witnesses,” while in earlier statements to “Proto Thema,” he had also claimed that he did not legally represent Sarafis and Kelisis.

In any case, the new evidence has come to officially confirm that the protégés intended their involvement in the case for their own benefit and were therefore illegally put on public interest witness status by the Greek judicial authorities in 2018.

According to experienced legal experts, the revelation of the fee strengthened the demand of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Yannis Stournaras, Adonis Georgiadis, Andreas Loverdos and other victims of the plot for the removal of the “hood”. At the same time, the new institutional framework effectively required the competent prosecutor to review and lift the protection status.

Specifically, they explain that the totality of the evidence led to three main conclusions:

– The “hooded” allegations of bribery of 10 politicians were proven to be completely false, as the entire indictment collapsed.

– They intended and received monetary gain, as they were also witnesses for the US authorities in the same case.

– They turned out to be persons of at least dubious credibility, as in the process “Sarafis” was remanded as the mastermind of another criminal organization that set up financial frauds.

The motives

Legal experts with intimate knowledge of the case in the US and Greece say that certain protected witnesses told the US authorities one thing and testified to the Greek authorities another with the possible aim of avoiding jail time and enjoying their reward. The official documents show, they note, that the protagonists in the case have provided the US authorities with strong evidence of the real Novartis scandal involving -exclusively- bribes to doctors. Evidence of which some had strong knowledge, as they were allegedly actively involved in the company’s “black” fund mechanisms.

This fact would automatically make them criminally liable to Greek justice. But it seems that the then SYRIZA government, instead of punishing those responsible and claiming hundreds of millions of euros in compensation from Novartis – as the US did – chose to turn the scandal into a political frame-up. The “Rasputin mechanism” provided the “hooded men” with criminal immunity from potential criminal acts of their own in exchange for making false, as it turned out, allegations about suitcases with money, with the aim of sending 10 political figures to jail and allowing SYRIZA to win the elections again.

“In this way, the protégés ensured not only that they would receive money from the US, but that they would be able to enjoy it in Greece, as their inclusion in public interest witness protection status automatically granted them absolute criminal immunity from any involvement in the existing scandal and the mechanism of bribing doctors,” the legal source said.

Background

The first public frame of the darkest political plot unfolded on the evening of February 5, 2018, a few hours after the massive rallies against the Prespes Agreement in Thessaloniki and Athens, when the then deputy justice minister of the SYRIZA – AN.EL. Dimitris Papaggelopoulos – to whom friends and foes alike gave the title “Rasputin” because of his reputation for his ability in behind-the-scenes machinations – emerged from the Maximou Mansion to declare that he had evidence in his hands of the biggest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state.

The “Rasputin list” with the criminal and moral impeachment of bribery had included, among others, the two former prime ministers Antonis Samaras and Panagiotis Pikrammenos, former deputy prime minister of the 2012-15 government Evangelos Venizelos, Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras and former ministers such as Adonis Georgiades, Andreas Loverdos, Dimitris Avramopoulos and Giorgos Koutroumanis. It should be noted that most of them did not have the slightest authority to intervene in favour of Novartis.

The relevant dossier was forwarded to Parliament a few days later, only to find that the entire testimony of the “hooded” witnesses was characterised by unthinkable contradictions, false accusations and sloppiness. The witnesses stayed for hours in the prosecutor’s offices, recalling in the process weighty facts they had omitted earlier. And allegations of bribery of political figures instead of substantial evidence were accompanied by phrases such asas “it is widely known”, “based on the logic of things”, “the rumour was circulating in the market”, “I suspect that”…

The culmination of the strong evidence of the cynical manipulations of the “Rasputin mechanism” was a publication by a SYRIZA government-friendly media outlet. The report revealed shocking evidence from the testimony of one of the hooded witnesses, which, however, was given to the relevant prosecutors… one day after the newspaper was published.

Some excerpts from the statements are typical:

“Ekaterini Kelis” passed through the door of prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki for the first time on November 6 and by February 4 she gave a total of nine statements. In her first meetings at the prosecutor’s office, she talked about clinical studies conducted by Novartis and it took almost a month to “remember” that she also had information about bribery of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

This is the famous testimony with the black Samsonite wheeled suitcase, which the then head of Novartis Hellas allegedly filled with bundles of purple, yellow and green banknotes in order to deliver it to Samaras. The witness cited as the only evidence of her allegations an entry and parking permit to the Maximos Mansion that she had obtained for Konstantinos Frouzis’ car, which allegedly also carried the suitcase. Maximou, of course, does not have a parking lot, but the witness and probably the prosecutors at the time probably did not know that…

The appointments for the kickbacks and the…wrong Lazaridis

And even more problematic is her reference to Mr. Stournaras: “I note that Frouzis in his own notes refers to a 30-minute meeting with Ioannis Stournaras as well,” the witness testified, to add: “And here too, the same tactics of Frouzis, as with Georgiades, for the delivery of the bribe money can be seen, as I have already testified to you.” In fact, the witness speculates that kickbacks were given to all the persons on Fruzi’s agenda. The speculation is not based on handwritten references to amounts and bank accounts, but on dates and times of appointments!

However, the use of Frouzis’ diary, which is probably in the possession of “Kelesi”, does not always lead to firm conclusions about the persons who were in meetings either. It is indicative that during the same testimony the witness claims, among other things, that Mr. Frouzis had repeated meetings with close associates of then Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Among other things, he claims that there was a meeting on 14/4/2014 at the avenue. Athens 110, 5th floor, with Chrysanthos Lazaridis. As it turns out, however, from a simple search on the Internet, the office of the then chairman of the Stock Exchange Socrates Lazaridis is located at this address and floor.

Kickbacks via email!

Logical leaps were also shown in the testimony of the other witness “Maximo Sarafi”, who went so far as to claim that the exchange of emails was a clear indication of bribery: “Following my previous testimony, I inform you that Andreas Loverdos and Konstantinos Frouzis had direct communication with each other through their personal emails,” he said, to add immediately afterwards:

“Since they had such communication in their personal emails this translates to the fact that they had something to say to each other that did not follow the official official official channel. They had regular contact and in person.” Although the content of the email correspondence does not appear to include references to bribery of specific individuals, the witness concludes: “…I consider that the amount of the gift received for this particular case by Loverdos is not below the amount of 200,000 euros in total.

From scandal to collusion

The handling of the case by the then majority of the Parliament was equally institutionally clumsy. SYRIZA and AN.EL MPs argued that the Parliament’s Pre-Investigative Committee did not have the authority to investigate the bribery offence and returned the file for further action to prosecutors, who from the start had accepted the perforated testimony of protected witnesses.

The real reasons for initiating these moves were finally revealed after the 2019 national elections, when the case was returned to Parliament as a frame-up. In the new investigations, key prosecutors spoke of unbearable pressure exerted by the then government and Papaggelopoulos to “fabricate testimonies” that would confirm what had already been channeled to friendly media outlets against specific political figures.

Ms Eleni Raikou had said that the evidence of the investigations and the information notes of the US authorities did not reveal any bribery of Greek politicians. However, as revealed by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Ioannis Angelis: “There was a predetermined decision to prosecute as-if, fast-track type prosecutions”, “there was a plan for the pre-election detention of Samaras, Georgiades, Loverdos. The prosecution of Pikrammenos was done with fake videos.”

Turnover

Typical is the conversion of the third protected witness “Ioannis Anastasiou”, who revealed his real identity voluntarily. This includes Professor Nikos Maniadakis, who turned from “hooded man” to “deep throat” by providing every detail of how the plot was set up. This witness revealed to the members of the House committee investigating Papandopoulos’ manipulations that the interrogations by the corruption prosecutors were taking place in an apartment at 24-26 Alexandroupoleos Street, near Michalakopoulou.

“They wanted to know if I saw ministers taking bribes. If I saw suitcases. I answered that I hadn’t seen anything. They suggested I follow the path of Nikos Zigras, a cousin of former minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who testified against him. The prosecutors told me not to be afraid as Samaras and Georgiades will not be re-elected. They asked me about five people. Primarily Adonis Georgiades, An. Samaras, G. Stournaras, An. Loverdos and Ev. Venizelos.

Touloupaki urged me to join the US program. In November 2017, along with my inclusion in the Greek program, she urged me to enter the US program. I was told that there would be a financial benefit,” he said in later testimony, adding that corruption prosecutors asked him to talk about suitcases and bribes to political opponents of the SYRIZA government, as otherwise he would be charged with serious felonies that would carry a life sentence.

In addition to this, the conclusion of the Pre-Investigative Committee and the documents of deputy prosecutors who investigated the manipulations of the “Rasputin mechanism” record the guidance and preparation of the alleged revelations made by the protected witnesses. Among other things, there is talk of statements that are “the product of stitching together pre-written texts”, given to corruption prosecutors “by email or memory stick” and incorporated “illegally as a ready-made testimony text, without live examination.”