Greece asks IMF chief for more information on death threat claims
Judicial inquiry follows Christine Lagarde's claim that she faced death threats after accusing wealthy Greeks of tax evasion
IMF chief Christine
Lagarde, who said she was forced to increase her personal security after
accusing wealthy Greeks of tax evasion. Photograph: AFP/Getty
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Christine Lagarde,
could soon be called to participate in a second judicial investigation
after claiming that she received death threats when she spoke out on tax evasion in Greece.
The inquiry, announced by a supreme court prosecutor in Athens, came days after the IMF managing director stunned Greeks by saying she had been forced to bolster her personal security after raising the subject.
Speaking of the failure of some rich Greeks to pay their dues, Lagarde told the Financial Times last week that it was a topic best left alone because it had got her into trouble. "I better not say too much because, you know, when I have talked about Greece and its taxes before, I got death threats and we had to increase security," she was quoted as saying.
The former French finance minister, who was put under formal investigation for potential criminal negligence by a court in Paris last month, then asked: "But is the shipping industry really paying its taxes? Are others? I don't think so."
Greek authorities launched the inquiry on Wednesday after Athens' justice minister, Haralambos Athanasiou, announced that he had written to Lagarde asking that she provide further details about the alleged threats.
Athanasiou took the step after the IMF chief sparked widespread embarrassment with the claim. Fears abound that Lagarde's seemingly off-the-cuff remarks could impact negatively on a country that has been kept afloat with emergency bailout funds from the EU and IMF for the past four years.
"How are we going to attract badly needed foreign investment when Greece is perceived not as a nation in which the rule of law prevails but as one as in which cartels and the mafia have the upper hand?" asked Dimitris Tsiodras, a leading commentator. "Lagarde is not alone. Others have received threats too," he told the Guardian.
Few figures have been as associated with the perennial problem of tax evasion in Greece as Lagarde, the first woman to lead the Washington-based fund. In 2010, as French finance minister, she handed her then Greek counterpart, George Papaconstantinou, a list of 2,062 suspected Greek tax dodgers with undeclared deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC for the express purpose of clamping down on tax avoidance.
At more than €20bn a year, lost income from the "national sport" remains by far the biggest single drain on the country's economy. Other EU countries acted on similar data, originally stolen by a renegade employee before being seized by the French police, but Athens did almost nothing to prosecute the holders of the accounts.
Instead, after six years of withering recession on the back of near economic and social collapse, the "Lagarde list" has come to represent the inequities of a crisis in which the vast majority have been hit by punishing austerity – the price of international aid - but the wealthy elite have got off scot free.
The IMF chief has won support from unlikely allies. After the publication of her remarks, the radical-left anti-austerity opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, also caused ructions saying that he too had been the victim of similar threats when he raised the issue of tax evasion at the height of the crisis two years ago.
"Mrs Lagarde's announcement was shocking," Tsipras said. "I can't imagine, especially in an interview with the Financial Times, that she was just throwing words around."
Athens' central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras, said he received two bullets in the post when, as finance minister, he attempted to arrest high-profile tax avoiders.
On Wednesday, Greece's inspector general of public administration, Leandros Rakintzis, sent further tremors through the political scene by announcing that "obstacles" had prevented him from pursuing well-known tax evaders.
Lagarde has resisted commenting on the furore her remarks have caused. The IMF chief, a lawyer by profession, has conceded that she was infuriated by the decision of a French court last month to place her under investigation. She has denied wrongdoing in allowing an arbitration process to end a dispute between the businessman Bernard Tapie, a friend and supporter of the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and the former state-owed bank Crédit Lyonnais.
The inquiry, announced by a supreme court prosecutor in Athens, came days after the IMF managing director stunned Greeks by saying she had been forced to bolster her personal security after raising the subject.
Speaking of the failure of some rich Greeks to pay their dues, Lagarde told the Financial Times last week that it was a topic best left alone because it had got her into trouble. "I better not say too much because, you know, when I have talked about Greece and its taxes before, I got death threats and we had to increase security," she was quoted as saying.
The former French finance minister, who was put under formal investigation for potential criminal negligence by a court in Paris last month, then asked: "But is the shipping industry really paying its taxes? Are others? I don't think so."
Greek authorities launched the inquiry on Wednesday after Athens' justice minister, Haralambos Athanasiou, announced that he had written to Lagarde asking that she provide further details about the alleged threats.
Athanasiou took the step after the IMF chief sparked widespread embarrassment with the claim. Fears abound that Lagarde's seemingly off-the-cuff remarks could impact negatively on a country that has been kept afloat with emergency bailout funds from the EU and IMF for the past four years.
"How are we going to attract badly needed foreign investment when Greece is perceived not as a nation in which the rule of law prevails but as one as in which cartels and the mafia have the upper hand?" asked Dimitris Tsiodras, a leading commentator. "Lagarde is not alone. Others have received threats too," he told the Guardian.
Few figures have been as associated with the perennial problem of tax evasion in Greece as Lagarde, the first woman to lead the Washington-based fund. In 2010, as French finance minister, she handed her then Greek counterpart, George Papaconstantinou, a list of 2,062 suspected Greek tax dodgers with undeclared deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC for the express purpose of clamping down on tax avoidance.
At more than €20bn a year, lost income from the "national sport" remains by far the biggest single drain on the country's economy. Other EU countries acted on similar data, originally stolen by a renegade employee before being seized by the French police, but Athens did almost nothing to prosecute the holders of the accounts.
Instead, after six years of withering recession on the back of near economic and social collapse, the "Lagarde list" has come to represent the inequities of a crisis in which the vast majority have been hit by punishing austerity – the price of international aid - but the wealthy elite have got off scot free.
The IMF chief has won support from unlikely allies. After the publication of her remarks, the radical-left anti-austerity opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, also caused ructions saying that he too had been the victim of similar threats when he raised the issue of tax evasion at the height of the crisis two years ago.
"Mrs Lagarde's announcement was shocking," Tsipras said. "I can't imagine, especially in an interview with the Financial Times, that she was just throwing words around."
Athens' central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras, said he received two bullets in the post when, as finance minister, he attempted to arrest high-profile tax avoiders.
On Wednesday, Greece's inspector general of public administration, Leandros Rakintzis, sent further tremors through the political scene by announcing that "obstacles" had prevented him from pursuing well-known tax evaders.
Lagarde has resisted commenting on the furore her remarks have caused. The IMF chief, a lawyer by profession, has conceded that she was infuriated by the decision of a French court last month to place her under investigation. She has denied wrongdoing in allowing an arbitration process to end a dispute between the businessman Bernard Tapie, a friend and supporter of the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and the former state-owed bank Crédit Lyonnais.
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