The answer to the altering of the original CD lies within Papakonstantinou’s immediate circle

The ongoing judicial inquiry into the notorious case of the Lagarde list focuses on the associates of former Finance minister Yorgos Papakonstantinou as it was his orders that were followed during the handling of the original CD with the names of account holders at the Geneva HSBC.

Despite the attempted distraction by the fact that there were many sticks-clones of the original list released, the economic prosecutors' investigation aims at finding the final answer to the identification of the person who made the transcript of the CD and is within the immediate circle of the former minister, who argues that while the disputed item was given for "confidential safekeeping" to an office colleague, it was "lost".

Papakonstantinou insists on not disclosing the name of the person who transferred the CD to a memory stick and in his last public appearance on State TV he said he will name his partner when he is called to the preliminary committee.

Economic prosecutors, however, are not waiting for the time when Papakonstantinou will want to tell the truth about what really happened with the disappearance and altering of the list, and have already begun to summon his colleagues.

The first of them who  testified on Thursday afternoon - with his personal details not being disclosed, only that he served at the Finance ministry as revocable officer - admitted that he took the CD from the former minister and following the instructions he received, printed some of the names of those with the highest deposits. "I received the CD. Papakonstantinou initially asked me to open it and tell him the names with the largest amounts, and I did so. Afterwards, he gave me the order to print the names of the people with the largest deposits. Then I gave the CD and photocopies to Papakonstantinou. I have no connection with the tampering," he testified.

Based on the deposition of Papakonstantinou’s partner, it seems that the specific staff member had the original CD in his hands. The question remaining 

is whether he informed the former minister about the existence of names of relatives who, according to the French authorities, were included in the original CD that was delivered in 2010. Because due the type of the electronic file, it is obvious that in order to select the 20 names with the largest deposits at the Geneva HSBC, one should have previously opened the files for each of the beneficiaries with accounts in this bank one by one.