Chartered auditors "sweep" Dora and Kouvelos’ tax statements

The property statement of the Kouvelos - Bakoyanni couple is being examined by a group of chartered auditors who are receiving new data from the Finance ministry and the SEC.

Information indicates that the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the parliament is preparing to call the Head of the Authority against money laundering, Panagiotis Nikoloudis, to provide further details about the case.

The chairman of the audit committee for tax statements, Evangelos Argyris, has mandated a priority check on the joint statement of the Democratic Alliance president and her husband in order to have an immediate conlusion.

Certainly this case is not the only one, as the Commission will proceed to inspections and similar conclusions for each of the cases included in Venizelos’ list that includes all the politicians and their relatives who sent abroad remittances in excess of 100,000 euros.

Prominent legal circles are commenting negatively on the unprecedented attack launched by the DA president against the Head of the authority for money laundering, prosecutor Panagiotis Nikoloudis.

The language she chose to use in her report to the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ioannis Tentes, creates a huge ethical issue, the same circles say. It is significant that by referring her complaint to Tentes, she is even anticipating disciplinary and criminal offenses and hinting at intent on Nikoloudis’ part.

And Bakoyanni seems to know that it is not likely that there would be an intervention by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court by ordering a disciplinary investigation against the Head of the authority for money laundering. That's because due to Nikoloudis' official status as deputy public prosecutor of the Supreme Court, to begin disciplinary proceedings against him would require interference by the minister of Justice, who is solely responsible for demanding a relevant investigation. For this reason, Bakoyanni is asking Tentes to forward the report to minister Papaioannou.

The Head of the independent authority is allegedly defending his own handling of the situation and declaring that he clarified in parliament that the whole process of transferring money was carried out in a lawful manner. He also seems to have said that he operated with discretion, since he did not mention any names.

Yesterday Isidore Kouvelos also attacked Nikoloudis, saying "he does not know how to do his job well." However, Kouvelos did not provide any information regarding the ship he allegedly purchased with the controversial transfer of the one million U.S. dollars.