[Blood Axis]

Everybody that's in power lives on bribery, corruption and theft, around here

The latest one:

What is the Scandal About?

In March 2007 it was revealed that the Treasury secretly and, allegedly, illegally, issued structured bonds to the value of 280€ million, which were bought exclusively by national insurance funds (*i.e. tax payers' money); however, not quite directly. The bonds followed a murky route from Athens, to London, to Cayman Islands, back to London, and then back to Athens, adding several commissions to the price of the product, to an amount estimated at 40 € million. Thus the price of a financial product with doubtful returns was considerably inflated.

The government pointed to the independence of the insurance funds and the incompetence of their directing boards; the opposition claimed both the route of these bonds as well as the final buyer was known to the issuer, alleging corruption.

No Minister resigned and an investigating process begun. The formal position of the government was that the on-going investigation would assign political responsibility, if there was any. However, as soon as the report was ready, the author of the report was personally attacked and the PM called for early elections.