Alter TV channel that stopped broadcasting due to financial difficulties is in the spotlight again as its former shareholders and managers are now facing felony charges for fraud and money-laundering. Their activities concerning around 8-million-euro fictitious transactions cases involving the private station and offshore companies are under investigation according to an announcement made on Friday.

For the moment, the examining magistrate’s case file concerns only two individuals. The prosecutor states that the amounts involved were reportedly traced to the two defendants’ bank records.

History

• Channel launched in 1994 as Channel 5, owned by Eleftheri Tileorasi S.A.

• Co-owned by Altec and Kouris Media Group and renamed Alter 5.

• Rebranded as Alter Channel in October 2000.

• Relaunched as Alter to better compete with other networks.

• Alter news peaks at 250,000 in 2002, coming behind Star that was the top-rating news broadcast of the time.

• Alter extends news bulletins in 2002 to run for an hour and twenty minutes and Star follows suit.

• The head of Alter and Tempo were dismissed in 2003.

• Alter overhauled its lineup in 2005 and also launched Alter Globe to feature the channel in North America, Australia and Asia and Africa

• Alter’s workers occupied the channel’s headquarters in protest against not having been paid for a year.

• The channel stopped broadcasting in December, 2011.

• In April. 2012, Alter’s major shareholder George Kouris started negotiations with Israeli investigators in the hope of reopening the channel