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An Athens court on Tuesday partially vindicated Andrikos (or Andreas) Papandreou, the brother of former Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou, in his legal lawsuit against Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos, who had accused the former of being involved in a firm that profited from the purchase of credit default swaps (CDS) insuring against a Greek bankruptcy.
The court rejected the first lawsuit against Kammenos and ordered that the brother of the former prime minister of Greece pay the leader of the Independent Greek party 20,000 Euros in damages. It then ruled that Kammenos pay Papandreou 30,000 Euros in damages and a further 500 Euros every time he slanders Papandreou (by calling him 'lamogio' - which means scumbicket-) in the future. In a press conference later on, Kammenos told reporters that he is going to purposely hold a press conference every month and publically continue to use the same characterization against Andreas Papandreou and simply pay the 500 bucks.
Kammenos’ office claimed the verdict vindicated the party leader as the original lawsuit by Papandreou had sought for some 1.4 million Euros in damages.
In the press conference that preceeded the court session and in the presence of MP Basil Kapernarou and the party's legal advisers, Mrs. Eleni Julie and Elias Gioldaseas, Kammenos noted that the challenge he took on several years ago to expose the shady dealings of the Papandreou family were finally being vindicated. He described the ruling as a victory for himself, his political reputation as well as for his political party.
On his part, Papandreou accused Kammenos of “continuing his campaign of misinformation.”
Interestingly, most Greek news outlets on Wednesday reported the news but not to its full entirety. In fact they did not mention even speak about the Athens Court ruling and only spoke about the fine that Kammenos was ordered to pay leaving it to be understood that the ruling played in favor of Andreas Papandreou.
Knowing very well how the Greek media operates, the court even issued an announcement stating its decision in an attempt to ward off disinformation. But the media ignored this as well.
In fact there was no mention at all (ZERO) about the fact that the Greek justice system accepted AS BEING TRUE that the brother of the former prime minister of Greece is suspected of being involved in the controversial CDS scandal!
Certainly there were no objective reports published and they all had the same parrot report.
At the press conference Kammenos reiterated that Andreas Papandreou was involved in a Swiss finance company with several partners who, were in the past, and/or are currently, being investigated by authorities!
Kammenos also announced that he plans to raise the issue in Parliament, as well as present the court ruling, so that a committee of parlimentarians be set up in order to probe this scandal. After all, he said, this was the only probe which PM Antonis Samaras had promised to investigate before becoming Greek premier.
The only common sense question that still remains unanswered is what was George Papandreou's role in this whole affair? We know that his brother was part of a company that was playing with ruthless and well known hedge funders and certainly as prime minister he had first hand knowledge of Greece's finances.So was there a leak? Or inside information? Well we here at HellasFrappe will go over the events that led to the court ruling on Tuesday, and you can all judge for yourselves.
In a nutshell, Papandreou and members of government (and/or associates) presided over the sale of 1.3 billion dollars worth of credit default swap contracts (CDS on Greek sovereign debt) on or around December of 2009, shortly after coming to power. The $1.3 billion worth of insurance protecting against a Greek default was bought during the spring and summer of the same year, by the Hellenic Postbank, a public banking arm of the Greek government. (In other words, public funds to be used for public insurance against default). If it were cashed in today, the policy would pay out in the region of $27 billion – a substantial amount to put against spiralling debt management.
But the Greek government is no longer in possession of this $27 billion of CDS. It was sold for a minimal profit soon after being bought. A Swiss-based wealth-management firm set up the same year, IJ Partners, bought the insurance.
On November 6, 2011 Kammenos had said in Parliament that George Papandreou "staged" the announcement of the referendum and mentioned that the following day billions of dollars/euros were lost on the international markets.
Kammenos, revealed that the failed Belgian bank DEXIA, in collaboration with his brother Andreas Papandreou and the company that Andreas worked for called UNIGESTION, placed a huge bet on the fluctuation of Euro/Swedish Krona several days before George Papandreou announced the referendum! In Parliament he gave details on how it was purchased by associates of the Greek Prime Minister as well as how it was used in bets on the collapse of the Greek economy, which at the time was worth BILLIONS Euros!
On the Sunday morning after the call for the referendum, a professor of economics explained what happened on the financial markets to two journalists on a weekend news show on MEGA channel, (watch video above). He said that the hedge funders bet almost 1,5 TRILLION US dollars when markets declined on the announcement that Papandreou planned to hold a referendum and pocketed much more than that. He specifically said that George Soros, Mr. Roubini and Mr. Paulson banked in on a lot of money just from betting on the fall of markets worldwide. We repeat. They bet more than one TRILLION Euros, and according to him and they made a lot more.... A LOT MORE!!!!
But how did they know that the markets would drop?
The professor said that in order to make bets of this magnitude they must have had some kind of inside information, or a plain old tip, and known at least one to two days ahead.
Obviously the only person on the inside was George Papandreou, and on the outside was his brother Andreas... Coincidence?
What is UNIGESTION all about?
Unigestion, a leading privately owned asset management company. The Unigestion-Ethos Strategic Committee is comprised of Andreas Papandreou (Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Athens), Serafino Iacono (Chairman of Pacific Rubiales Energy), Dominique Biedermann (Executive Director of Ethos) and Bertrand Piccard (aviator, explorer and UN Goodwill Ambassador currently working on Solar Impulse, a solar-powered aero plane project).
A little after Andreas got involved with this company and totally by chance (yeah right) the leader of the then main opposition party and today's prime minister George Papandreou decided to start endorsing green development.
In 2011 Kammenos revealed that these so called "green" funds play on the fluctuation of the markets.
"The firm, based in Geneva, has a number of well-known Greeks serving as either managing partners or members of the board, including former IMF economist Miranda Xafa (who inter mediated Greece’s dealings with the IMF) – a former CEO of Piraeus Bank….one of the banks named in a law suit for secretly shorting Greek government bonds during the period in question. Another upstanding Greek citizen working there is Theodore Margellos, a high-profile export mogul who, according to Kammenos’ speech on the floor of parliament, is accused of falsely passing off imported corn from Kosovo as Greek produce.
IJ’s Vice President, Mr. Jose-Maria-Figueres, shares board membership of a separate private company with the Prime Minister’s own brother, Mr. Andreas Papandreou Jr.
Association doesn’t spell guilt in a Court of Law, but at the time that the Hellenic Postbank of Greece sold the CDSs to IJ, Prime Minister George Papandreou was consulting personally with the IMF about how to proceed with what became the Greek bailout package. News of these discussions had not yet leaked – and credit markets had yet to uncover the extent of the impairment to Greece’s national balance sheet.
Yet the Athens Government decided that, rather than present the CDS insurance policy as a profound reassurance for the markets, it would sell it….to a Swiss outfit crammed with senior Greeks – and known to the Papandreou family. Rising bond yields caused by speculation about Greece’s lack of funds to service was the main factor pushing Greece into the clutches of the IMF. And Greece probably wouldn’t be in quite the position it occupies today.
There’s more. Greek bonds were being sold short by the usual banking suspects in Europe and the United States: including Goldman Sachs – who only three years previously had held a private seminar for the previous Athens administration, the purpose of which was quite obviously to mislead the EU officials in Brussels about the depth of Greek indebtedness.
With Greek bonds thus under short-selling fire, the Central Bank of Greece then took an inexplicable decision: to change the legal settlement period for shorting government bonds from 3 days to 10 DAYS. The direct effect of doing this was to massively pump up the value of the Greek CDS insurance already sold to IJ Partners. The side effect, of course, was to massacre the bond price and spike yields from them….in other works, knacker the Greek debt strategy completely.
None of this is conclusive proof: but the wealth of circumstantial evidence suggesting graft and complicity is more than enough to give the whole affair a very nasty smell…..and further convince Fritz in die Berlinerstrassen that the Greeks should not be given any more money. That in turn puts Frau Merkel in an impossible position, because she wants Fritz’s votes (the bonkers anti-nuclear energy decision is as clear a piece of evidence to support that view as we’re ever going to get) but she also wants a Greece remaining in the euro – and effectively a chattel of ‘Grossdeutschland’ - The Slog
What kind of forces are behind this company?
Why was Qatar involved in all of this? According to what was reported two years ago, DEXIA in Luxembourg was bought by Qatari businessmen. Yes the same country that is apparently finacially supporting rebels in Syria and which has shown a great amount of interests in Greek assets. In fact "Qatar" was a hot spot during George Papandreou's rule, his other brother Nikos Papandreou visited often and so did the (PASOK) Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece Ieronimos who went to Qatar to talk about these intriguing little "green investments".
Before Papandreou's sudden urge for a referendum, and his downfall, a Swiss paper ("LaLiberte" ) published an investigative report in mid August of 2011 claiming that the “suspicious” dealings of the I4cense institute “www.i4cense.org” –and the involvement of the brother of the Greek prime minister ‘Andreas Papandreou’ at this institute, has mysteriously gone unnoticed by the Greek mainstream media. The article titled “Greek Salad" talks about a family business, its location and features a grand photo, of none other, than Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
The author of the article basically justifies the information already published on most alternative news sites in Greece.
GREEK SALAD AND LARGE
Lake Geneva MORGES – Take an institute under the Greek flag, which claims to work for “energy security and environmental protection; place it on the sheltered shores of blue Lake Geneva; put Andreas Papandreou, as its head man, who is none other than the brother of the Greek Prime Minister; add a touch of embezzlement, a pinch of alleged conflicts of interest between the two brothers and the salad is ready: I4cense association, based in Morges, has shaken the political world in Greece and the blogosphere.
The (news about this) institute has shaken the Greek political system and (especially) the blogosphere, because there are strong suspicions of embezzlement and conflicts of interests involved. In addition, it - The Institute for climate and energy security ‘I4cense’- involves (family members) of the (Greek) prime minister.
Panos Kammenos, (as member of the New Democracy party which was the main opposition then) was the first to sound the alarm (when he accused the Greek prime minister of acting as a broker in Greek CDS contracts):
The question that did not get answered was how is/was it possible to subsidize a non-Greek and non-governmental organisation based in Switzerland?“The institute has received funding from the EU, the Hellenic Republic as well as Siemens (note: the German company is also in the heart of a corruption scandal with Greek officials).Opaque structure
According to the Commercial Registry of Vaud (in Switzerland), this (controverisial) institute aims to “promote and encourage the idea that energy security and environmental protection are two mutual and complementary concepts.”
Noble intentions, notes the author, but then asks what is really behind this institute?
For more information (so you can get a better understanding of what is going on), you have to go in Morges, at 1A Vine Street, (or) the law firm H & B Law (which) serves as the headquarters I4cense.
(Lawyer) Marc Hasler confirms that, under Swiss law, the Institute for climate and energy security is an association. “Everything is managed from London and Athens,” he says, (via a mailbox).
More troubling, says the article, is the fact that only two people are on the steering committee of this institute, Andreas Papandreou – brother of the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou – and his wife Marianthi Alexiou.
A couple who has never visited the headquarters of the institute in Switzerland.
The (institute's) domain name (www.i4cense.org), is housed at the University of Athens by Andreas Papandreou. Its list of activities include several events since its founding in 2008.
(One of those events, according to the article in the Swiss daily was) the organization of a (particular) Forum of (foreign) investors working on the "green" development (or Eco-Development) of the Mediterranean (in) 2010.
This event (was held) in conjunction with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and under the auspices of the Greek Prime Minister. Was there enough (concluded at the above event) to cause some conflicts of interest between the brothers Papandreou, (no one knows...).
I4cense is a ”think tank “(which is well) known in Greece and some of our experts were invited to speak at their conferences,” says Sabine Parisse, Deputy Division Chief of the Press Service of the EIB. Apparently they did not know the precise legal nature of this structure. She said (she was) even surprised to learn of the existence of the institute’s headquarters in Switzerland, as well as (the so-called) charges of embezzlement.
An academic honesty
“The EIB did not contribute financially to the organization of the (above mentioned) forum in 2010,” insists Sabine Parisse.
“The only relationship between the bank and representatives of I4cense were to participate in meetings where all stakeholders were present for the establishment of the forum.”Clearly, the I4cense institute has not been used for the organization (notes the article in the Swiss daily... and indeed this alone should have sounded an alarm in Athens).
C & C International was responsible for logistics (adds the article). Office for the Coordination of events of the EIB, the charges against the institute (are indeed a) surprise:
“Andreas Papandreou is a renowned academic, honest and serious.” Opinion shared by Achilles Paparsenos, head of the Greek Press Office in Geneva, “Mr. Papandreou is a respected environmental economist“. Achilles Paparsenos attests to the seriousness of I4cense”.The links between the institute and Greece are nothing new, and the website (displays) a list of the Scientific Council which contain people like Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University.
The Financial Times were and/or still are among the sponsors included.
Mr. Paparsenos had told the Swiss daily that the institute never received a penny from the Greek Government. He also recalled that (the institute) intended/intends (for all of its dealings) to be (upfront and) transparent. He also told the Swiss paper that he made the fight against corruption, gangrene of the national economy, and the crisis factor its workhorse.
Stifled business
Still, this new case (adds the article in the Swiss daily), this did not surprise Greeks. Although it is stifled by the (PASOK) Socialist government.
“This is not surprising. The media is in the hands of groups who have no interest in offending the government, “noted one journalist. “Only small (less popular) radio and television channels are talking about it.”
A little further up we mentioned the involvement of the Greek Post Bank in this whole affair. After surfing the web we discovered this analysis from Alternative Disorder News:
"Kamenos is well known for his very conservative political beliefs in Greece. He is however very well connected with the Greek ship-owners lobby in London, and thus he is very well informed about the games that Greek businessmen and the brother of the Prime Minister have been conducting at the London Stock Exchange.The reason that Kamenos went forward with his revelations has to do with the fact that in order to cover up their tracks the Papandreou brothers and their business associates had embarked upon a campaign of defamation of the previous CEO of the state owned Greek Post bank Mr Philipidis. The latter appointed as CEO of the Post Bank by the Greek conservative party, had bought CDS for the Post bank at a very low price.
The "crime", says the same author, that Philipidis supposedly conducted, according to his defamers, was that he had purchased CDS as interest to speculate with the Greek public debt. Of course this was all proven to be nonsense. It is standard business practice to buy CDS if you buy a significant amount of bonds.
Maximum, Mr Philipidi was doing a favor or repairing a favor to a company that had issued these bonds, besides sharing the risk of the post bank's investment.
It is important to note that the campaign of discrediting Philipidis, was conducted at a time when Greek public opinion was very sensitive about these accusations due to the speculative attacks that were under way against Greek State bonds from international speculators.
So what happened, according to the author of Alternative News Disorder, in December 2009 the Greek Post bank sold the CDS that it owed. Why was this considered a scandal? Well, at that time the price of the CDS was very, very low.
"The fund/ investment company - I think that it is the UNIGESTION - that bought the CDS that the Greek Post bank sold, was a company which had Andreas Papandreou in its Investment Committee. The Investment committee was promoting CDS purchases from a number of European states, Greece included, to its rich business clients. The timing of the selling of the Greek CDS by the Greek Post Bank to the business friends of the Papandreou family, is even more scandalous as it took place on December 2009, at a time when Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was secretly - from the Greek public and even his party - negotiating with Strauss Kahn (as Strauss Kahn himself has repeatedly said) a deal for Greece with the IMF."Thus, the issue of inside information is more that obvious if someone takes into account the timing of the transactions of the Greek CDS that the Greek post bank conducted on December 2009. A number of other very important political issues also rise from these transactions.
For example why didn't a state owned bank hang on to the CDS at a time when speculative attacks -through the use of CDS- were in progress in the stock markets? (London Stock Exchange included, if not at the heart of the operation of the "speculative attack"). Well known funds that specialize in speculative attacks and are known for their aggressive behavior, and at the time they had embarked on a systematic campaign of accumulating Greek CDS from the market at very low prices. Everyone who knows this market also recognizes that the speculative attack was well on its way against Greece (there was no other reason for the massive accumulation of very low priced CDS by foreign "investors").
The fact that a Greek state owned bank (the Greek Post Bank) was "ordered" by the Greek government to sell Greek CDS at a very low price, while it was rising rapidly, to a fund that included Andreas Papandreou -the brother of the Greek Prime Minister- on its investors committee, instead of holding on to it as security is more than SCANDALOUS.
Also, take into consideration how the crisis was manipulated and managed by George Papandreou and his then Minister of Finance George Papakonstantinou. Once you do that it becomes more than obvious why the activities of Andreas Papandreou constitute a scandal and should be thoroughly investigated.
Remember the timing.
The campaign of discretiting Greece, and Greek public finances in the same period, either by labelling Greece as a corrupt country, or characterizing our national economy as a sinking "titanic" lead to a sharp decrease of value on Greek state bonds, therefore increasing the CDS!
Another thing to consider is that when the CEO of the Greek Post Bank purchased the Greek CDS, the spread of the Greek state ten year bonds was at 305 or 340 base points. However when he Post Bank sold it, and with the help of all the discrediting that the Papandreou clan did, the spread of Greek bonds increased initially to 700 and later on to 1000 base points, reaching an astronomical 1800 base points.
So after all this information, we cannot help but ask. Exactly how much money did the Papandreou family score just before Greece was led to the Memorandums?
There are certainly too many questions that remain unanswered. One thing is certain though, when this scandal finally gets the attention it deserves and when the Greek political elite stops protecting George Papandreou, we will finally receive the answers we want as a society and certainly justice will have a huge load of work on its hands.
Signed
HellasFrappe
George Papandreou accused of committing treason on CDS contracts
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2011/06/george-papandreou-accused-of-committing.html
SHOCKING REPORT – Swiss paper justifies report by Olympia.gr against brother of Greek PM
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2011/08/shocking-report-swiss-paper-justifies.html
SPECIAL REPORT - DEXIA bank, UNIGESTION, CDS = Papandreou Family
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2011/11/special-report-dexia-bank-unigestion.html
(Please note that most of the above information was taken either from the videos and the links we posted, and/or from our own archives. We have featured a plethora of stories on this issue over the last two years. To conduct your own investigation simply go to the search box directly above the donate button on the sidebar and type in your inquiry)
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