Approximately 234 lawmakers, out of a total of 266 present at the vote, on Thursday voted in favour of adding further charges to the ongoing investigation against Papakonstantinou, who is already accused of tampering with a confidential tax document. Greek MPs decided that Papakonstantinou should also be investigated for deliberately causing damages to the public treasury during his run as Minister of Finance.
Addressing his former peers, he told MPs that the present leader of PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos, had the audacity to compare him Akis Tsochatzopoulos.
"But I wasn't the one who defended Mr. Tsochatzopoulos in parliament, it was Venizelos!"He may have retired from politics, but is very unliked by the citizens of Greece because he helped set up the first austerity program with the Troika in 2010.
Hand chosen by Papandreou personally, George Papakonstaintou is suspected of tampering with the so-called "Lagarde list" to hinder a probe into tax evasion. Reports claim that he deleted the names of three of his relatives from the list, but he has continually denied all charges against him.
Named after the present IMF chief Christine Lagarde, the file apparently contains the names of more than 2,000 Greek citizens with accounts at an HSBC branch in Switzerland who are being investigated for tax evasion.
The list, which was leaked by an HSBC employee, was sent to the former Minister in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, who at the time was serving as France's finance minister.
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