An Athens appeals court on Friday found a one-time minister in a late 1990s socialist PASOK government guilty of money laundering charges.
The court ruled that 450,000 deutschmarks transferred by Siemens Hellas into bank accounts controlled by former transport minister Tassos Mantelis were, indeed, a kickback, and not an "campaign contribution", as the latter has long claimed. An indictment maintained that the money aimed to seal a contract for Siemens with the then state-run Hellenic Telecoms (OTE) for the digitalization of its phone lines.
The 450,000 DM were transferred in two installments, in 1998 and 2000, to a bank account controlled by an individual identified only as "Roccos", listed in the indictment as Mantelis' in-law, Giorgos Tsougranis.
The latter defendant was unanimously acquitted of the same charge for which Mantelis was convicted. Tsougranis was also acquitted of felony bribery, with the court accepting that he acted without malice.
Another defendant found guilty was Ilias Georgiou, a former executive for Siemens Hellas - the German multinational's subsidiary in Greece - on charges of money laundering and felony bribery. Additionally, a one-time close aide to Mantelis, Aristidis Mantas, was also convicted for simple complicity to money launder. He was acquitted of charges of complicity to bribe.
Shortly thereafter, the court handed down a sentence, which essentially means no jail time.
Mantelis was given an eight-year suspended term and a 50,000-euro bail pending any appeal.
The bribery conviction, moreover, had no impact, given that the original charge had exceeded a statute of limitations.
