Businessman Kyriakos Griveas and his spouse Anastasia Vatsika were handed over to Greek authorities by Scotland Yard on Wednesday. The couple was extradited in order to stand trial in Greece in relation to an unsecured loan scandal. A European arrest warrant had been issued following a Greek prosecutor’s report that found that the couple had allegedly received an unsecured loan worth 27 million euros from the TT Hellenic Postbank in 2009.
Negotiations between Greek and British authorities planning the couple’s extradition had been underway for months. Westminster Courts had begun hearing the case of the couple involved in the Postal Bank scandal in July. At the time, Mr. Griveas had told Greek journalists in London that he would be voluntarily returning to Greece to testify in September even if there was an appeal.
The couple was held by Greek authorities on Wednesday evening and they are expected to be brought to the magistrate investigating the scandal, Mr. George Andreadis, so as to discuss the felony charges against them. They have the right to ask for time to prepare their defense.
TT Hellenic Postbank Scandal Background Information
A total of 25 people – entrepreneurs and bank officials – were charged in connection with loans that the TT Hellenic Postbank is alleged to have granted without adequate guarantees between 2007 and 2012. They include 75-year-old Alpha television channel manager Dimitris Kontominas and others. Prosecutors had issued warrants for arrests in January, including for the indictment of TT’s former Chairman and former Chairman of Panathinakos Football Club Angelos Filippidis. Warrants had also been issued for the arrest of Mr. Griveas and his wife. The largest of the suspicious loans had gone to Mr. Kontominas and entrepreneur Lavrentis Lavrentiadis. A 150-page report had been compiled by prosecutor Popi Papandreou that noted that a great deal of the money from the loans had been funnelled out of Greece via offshore firms and had been used “not to boost or expand business activities but to increase the wealth of particular individuals.”
