Businessmen and former FSF chief to stand trial over Postbank scandal

To Vima — A total of 35 people, including many prominent businessmen and the former head of the Financial Stability Fund, will stand trial for the Postbank loan scandal, according to the Appeal Council decision that was announced on Tuesday.

Those to stand trial include Angelos Filippidis, Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, Dimitris Kontominas, Pericles Livas, Victor Restis, Dimitris Bakatselos, the former FSF chief Anastasia Sakellariou, Kyriakos Griveas and Maria Vatsika.

The 35 defendants will face charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. The Appeal Council has acquitted businessman Panagiotis Efthimiou at the instigation of prosecutor Maria Soukara.

According to the case file, the management of the former State-owned bank abused its position and gave out hundreds of millions of euros worth of unsecured loans to individuals and businesses close to them, without any collateral given to the bank.

The Hellenic FSF was founded in July 2010 as a state-owned private legal entity with the purpose to “contribute to the maintenance of the stability of the Greek banking system, for the sake of public interest.”