Georges Koskotas

Georges Koskotas ( Yorgos Koskotas ) is a Greek business man, who having made fortune with the the United States, returned in Greece, where it bought a bank, a football club and quantity of newspapers. Little by little, it became one of the principal personalities of the Greek financial world.

However, in October 1988, it appeared that its American fortune was entirely fictitious. The swindler flees on November 7th, 1988 and was found with the the United States where he was imprisoned in a prison of the Massachusetts. As of October 1988, it then started to launch charges implying the eminent personages of the socialist party to the capacity in Greece, the socialist Mouvement panhellenic (PASOK). In March 1989, in an interview in the magazine Time, it confirms that it would have given to the Prime Minister an amount of 20 million dollars in tickets of 5.000 Drachme S contained in forty bags and handing-over in hand suitable for advising Prime Minister nearest. This bribe would have been given to obtain certain preferential treatments and an undertaking to purchase of an Athenian daily newspaper. He affirms to have put in sure place of the letters and diaries in order to protect his life.

March 6th, 1989, it carries charges of “corruption” and “crime” against the First socialist minister Andreas Papandreou already weakened by political problems, other health issues and even of the sentimental problems. The March 19th, a gathering with Athens, joins together more than one million demonstrators against the Greek Socialists. These charges will lead to the legislative elections of June 18th, 1989 to an important defeat of the Pasok which with 39% of the voices will lose the absolute majority.

Georges Koskotas was condemned to 25 years of prison for a diversion of 33 billion Drachme S (230 million dollars) with the Banque of Crete. He left prison in March 2001 after having purged the 3/5 of his sorrow.

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