"All the loans were issued with unanimous decisions by the board and all the procedures were respected," Filippides told SKAI Radio on Thursday. He also said that if he could turn back time, he would even issue those same loans again today. He even stressed that the Hellenic Postbank's bad-loan ratio was far lower than that of other bigger Greek banks.Filippides was in Turkey since January 3rd, police said.
Shortly after his arrest, Filippides admitted to one report on Real Fm that he was in a hotel in Turkey and said that it was very easy for authorities to find him because he was using his credit cards. The former chairman of the Postal Bank now faces charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. It is expected that he will be released to Greek authorities as soon as Sunday.
Over the last few days Filippides had made appeared on various Greek news programs stating that he was in the United States and that he would be returning to Greece very quickly in order to clear up his position in this case. Unfortunately for him he was using his mobile telephone to make these calls, and it was because of his frequent use that enabled authorities to track him down in Turkey.
Greek anti-corruption officials have signalled out 25 people in this case. They issued arrest warrants for at least 18 individuals that are linked to this scandal on charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. (5 of which are now in custody).
Prosecutors are accusing the former management of Hellenic Postbank of granting unsecured loans amounting to more than 400 million Euros to various entrepreneurs. According to the indictments, this capital was never returned, causing damage to the bank (as well as to Greek taxpayers who are now obligated to pay off all these loans). The money was instead used to fatten the wallets of all those accused.
46 minutes into the video the Hellenic Postbank scandal is analyzed.
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