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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-01-08
CONTENTS
[01] Former defence ministry official lists kickbacks history
[01] Former defence ministry official lists kickbacks history
ANA-MPA -- Former defence ministry official Antonis Kantas, who served
as alternate director for armaments purchases, wrapped up his four-day
testimony before Magistrate for Corruption Gavriil Mallis on Friday.
Kantas, who was remanded in custody on December 18, had been arrested
on a money-laundering charges linked into illegal payments from defence
ministry armament programmes traced to a Singapore bank account.
In his testimony, which is 30 typewritten pages long, Kantas is said to
have named 17 individuals related to illegal funds around procurements of
the ministry over several years; they include politicians and well-known
businessmen.
According to sources, Kantas allegedly said that for Russian armaments
he received a "very generous" kickback of 3 percent on the total value of
the purchase, when kickbacks were usually set at 0.5 or at most 1 percent.
In reviewing all the amounts he remembers receiving in euros or dollars,
Kantas listed an array of payments he received over the years, according
to sources, that go as far as 1989. For example, he allegedly got half
a million to 600,000 euros from submarine contracts; about 1.5 million
euros from the antiaircraft missile Stinger Asrad targeting and control
systems; about 3 million dollars from the antiarmament rockets Kornet -
700,000 of which were in cash and of these, half a million were turned
over to two bankers to deposit overseas; about 1.7 million dollars from
the antiaircraft short-range missile system OSA AMK; 800,000 from Mirage
200-5 aircraft; and so on.
Kantas is said to have named former ministers Akis Tsochatzopoulos
and Yiannos Papantoniou in his testimony, along with the 83-year-old
representative of German-based STN Atlas company, who he claimed bribed
him for contracts with 1.5 million euros; the man is scheduled to testify
before prosecutors on January 2.
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