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Journalist Arrested In Greece For Publishing List of Possible Tax-Evaders

Posted by samzenpus on from the naughty-list dept.

kyriacos writes "The Greek government is charging journalist Kostas Vaxevanis with violation of the data privacy law for publishing a list of about 2,000 Greeks who hold accounts with the HSBC bank in Switzerland. While more and more austerity measures are being taken against the people of Greece, there is still no investigation of tax evasion for the people on this list by the government. The list has been in the possession of the Greek government since 2010."

6 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Get out of Greece now. by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you're in Greece and don't already have your money out of the country, you're an idiot. This isn't about taxes. It's about Greece threatening to leave the euro area, switch to a local currency (bring back the drachma!), and printing money to get out of their financial disaster. People in Greece, as EU residents, have no obligation to participate in this. The EU encourages cross-border banking. So everybody with any significant cash is moving it to German, French, or Swiss banks in case the axe falls.

    1. Re:Get out of Greece now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Local currencies are bad how, exactly? It seems that participating in the euro has brought forced austerity measures and foreigners dictating local policy, wages, benefits, etc. When somebody else controls your money, it matters rather little who runs your government.

      I mean, it's not like, to dip into recent history, the ex leaders of Iraq and Libya suddenly became bad guys. They were bad guys for years and we didn't care, other than the occasional one sided ass whipping they got once in a while. Now, when they decided to make moves that would make them independent of the US dollar, all of the sudden THEN they become problems worth dealing with.

      That doesn't matter, though, because while I'd love to blame that on Fox News, which is deserving of so much condemnation, the fact is that no US news source with a mass following reports on these things. So you end up with a population ignorant of why the rest of the world hates us, which is susceptible to such claptrap as "the terrorists hate us for our freedom" and other such nonsense like that. It really is all about money, and the banksters don't care who gets trampled on as long as they win. Watch what's going to happen in Greece if they seriously get someone in charge who really has the potential and the willingness to leave the euro.

    2. Re:Get out of Greece now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Their debts are enumerated in euros so they have to pay them back in euros.

      They simply state "All debts will be paid back with Drachma. If you don't like that, let us know, and we'll cancel our debt with you." People would sign up to take the drachma, if the alternative was nothing. One or two would hold out, and Greece would default on those, and nobody would care, because the people who refused to take the offered drachma would be blamed.

      OR some of those hedge funds would follow recent example http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-elliott-capital-management-seizes-ara-libertad-ship-owned-by-argentina-2012-10 and use courts in exceptionally corruptible countries to win judgements and seize mobile property of the Greek government to force full payment.

  2. Tax records by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Tax records are public documents in Finland. In fact, they are published as an annual bestseller (two pieces of information are listed: the reported annual income and the total tax).

    The logic is the same as with court records. The citizens need to be able to trust that the tax system treats everybody fairly.

    1. Re:Tax records by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, it's not obvious. Because why would you be posting a question like that on an English-language, US-based tech site instead of a political forum that has least something to do with Finland. Or just find a penpal or something.

  3. Ah, dodgy Switzerland by skegg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hey many billions -- nay, TRILLIONS -- of dollars have wealthy individuals from around the globe hidden in Swiss bank accounts?

    Under any other circumstances, nations would ban trade with Switzerland unless it shared bank account data with their local tax office. Alas, it's the same fat cats that run our countries who shield their wealth in Switzerland.

    It was eye opening when that disgruntled IT fellow burned a copy of bank account data onto a couple of DVD's and then embarked on a global tour of selling to each country a list of their citizens who had money stashed in Switzerland.

    Is he still alive?