The probe is investigating why the names of three of former finance minister George Papakonstantinou’s relatives were removed from the list of 2,062 Greeks with $1.95 billion in the Geneva branch of HSBC, some of whom are thought to be tax evaders.
In his letter, Markoyiannakis said that some of the MPs on the committee were displaying behavior “clearly intent on causing delays.” That came after he tangled with a member of the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Zoe Konstantopoulou and Independent Greeks MP Vassilis Kapernaros broke his finger after banging a desk in frustration. Markoyiannakis said he felt they were asking witnesses an excessive amount of questions without helping the investigation progress.
Meanwhile, the former head of Papakonstantinou’s office, Chrysa Hatzi, testified before the committee for several hours, and was apparently quizzed about the list. She told MPs that the CD containing the date arrived at the ministry early in October 2010. A report in the Kathimerini newspaper said that she admitted that the normal process of logging the arrival of an official file was not followed. Hatzi added that she did not know which of her colleagues took the CD for safekeeping. As a result, she was asked to name all 28 employees serving in Papakonstantinou’s office so they can be questioned.
Earlier in the week, Cyber Crime Unit director Manolis Sfakianakis told the committee that the CD was copied on a USB stick to lose its tracks. He added that the combination of "copying and hiding of the initial material is highly suspicious."
The former minister claimed that he copied the CD on a memory stick "for security reasons." But according to Sfakianakis, the repeated copying on computers and other media occurred purely for distraction purposes.
A report on ProtoThema quoted Sfakianakis as saying that "the original copying of the CD on a USB and then on another USB understandably shows a will to alter its contents. It is highly suspicious when one copies a CD on a USB stick and then says he lost it while creating other USBs at the same time." He added that even a beginner could "change the dates on an electronic file" and that "since we do not have the original CD or the original USB, we cannot jump to conclusions." Finally, he said that "if I had the original USB and the computers of Diotis and Papakonstantinou I would have given you a result within 2 days."
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