- What happened to the 3.5 million fine imposed on him in 2015 by the Centre for the Control of Large Taxpayers for the “undeclared” 5.4 million dollars that had been identified in his accounts at HSBC bank. That is, the infamous “Lagarde list”
- The felony prosecution and the acquittal
- Why he was indispensable to the last three prime ministers of the New Democracy and the statement of Antonis Samaras “I wish Greece had 10 Papastavrou”
- What was his role in the negotiations with the Troika – His lunches with IMF’s Thomsen and talks with the “deep state of Brussels”
- The trip to Albania with Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the participation in the breakfast coffee of Maximos Mansion
By Vassilis Galoupis and Vangelis Triantis
Kostas Karamanlis had appointed him in his government as Secretary of International Relations. Antonis Samaras, as Prime Minister, placed him with increased responsibilities in the negotiating team with the Troika and he was often referred to as the “head of the Greek side”. Reports are converging that Mitsotakis’ re-election in yesterday’s elections marks his return, this time in an upgraded role within Maximos Mansion.
Yet, the “indispensable” of the last three prime ministers of the Southwest, Stavros Papastavrou remains relatively unknown to the general public. Despite his long tenure in political posts, his involvement in the Lagarde, Panama Papers, and Paradise Papers cases, or the reports of his relations with Mareva Grabovski, Papastavrou has never been a popular political figure.
At the height of the ND-Syriza political controversy over the Lagarde list in April 2015, the then party president Antonis Samaras had made a statement that still stands as a reference point: “I wish Greece had 10 Papastavrou,” he had said in defense of his colleague. A statement he repeated for Papastavrou in June 2021, after the acquittal of the Council of Misdemeanors of Athens.
“No” to the “Rafina circle”, “yes” to discussions with Troika
Stavros Papastavrou was born in 1967. He studied law and is a member of the New Democracy Party. He was a close associate in the government of Antonis Samaras 2012-15, and under Kostas Karamanlis 2004-09 he was Secretary of International Relations. In fact, at that time he even found a place on the New Democracy ticket for the European elections. Nevertheless, Kostas Karamanlis had not included him in his very close circle, the so-called “Rafina group”.
Papastavrou graduated from Athens College, studied law in Athens and did his postgraduate studies at Harvard, and joined ONNED at a young age.
In January 2014, under Antonis Samaras, there were reports in the daily press that he was destined to replace then Finance Minister and later Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras. A plan that ultimately did not go ahead.
At the time, Stavros Papastavrou was described as a close associate of the Prime Minister who “enjoys his full trust as few do”. He considered him a discreet and effective partner.
Antonis Samaras’ diplomatic advisor was actively involved in what was happening in Maximos Mansion at the time, especially in the discussions with the Troika. He was considered to know more than a few others the most ‘hot’ points of the negotiations, while he also had a full picture of the preconditions.
He was also on the team monitoring the government’s work, and his comfort in talking to the “Brussels deep state” was noted.
For “special missions”
His career in the New Democracy Party dates back to the 1990s when he served as secretary general of International Relations and youth chairman (1997-2001) of the European People’s Party.
As far as we know so far, Antonis Samaras had given him some “special assignments”, such as unblocking the Memorandum of Understanding between Greece and Germany, which had been signed under George Papandreou in 2011 and then had been “frozen”.
There were reports that at the time of the negotiations with the Troika, he had lunch with IMF representative Paul Thomsen, while he accompanied the then Deputy Finance Minister N. Mavraganis to Switzerland for discussions with the Swiss government on the lists of Greek depositors in the banks there.
However, the ambitious profile that Stavros Papastavrou persistently built for years in politics was ‘crushed’ by the involvement of his name in the Lagarde list, when he was alleged to be a co-manager of a $550 million account. It was the first time he had been in the spotlight for a negative reason. The ND leader then referred to a “smear war by SYRIZA”.
The “new chief of staff”
From the middle of 2022 and especially after the first elections of May 21, 2023, there were increasing reports about Papastavrou’s return to the government. In fact, the most recent reports said that Kyriakos Mitsotakis intended him for the role of the “new chief of staff at the Maximos Mansion”, a post “shared” in the previous four years by Grigoris Dimitriadis and George Gerapetritis.
Stavros Papastavrou accompanied Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the Prime Minister’s trip to Albania before Christmas last year, while he reportedly already participated in the extended breakfast coffee at Maximos Mansion on Fridays.
The acquaintance between Mitsotakis and Papastavrou “dates back” to their school days, when both were students at Athens College. They have been talking more and more regularly since 2016, when Kyriakos Mitsotakis took over the presidency of the New Democracy, while there were scenarios as early as 2022 that the prime minister was thinking of using him in the previous government, something that, due to opposition from some executives, did not materialize until the announcement of the elections.
In June 2022, Stavros Papastavrou was part of the delegation of the New Democracy party executives to the European People’s Party congress in Rotterdam. It was reported in internal party discussions at the time that Papastavrou was intended to replace Thanasis Bakolas (who was elected Secretary General of the EPP in Rotterdam) as the Prime Minister’s advisor on issues concerning the European Union and the United States.
On the Lagarde list
In 2015, the KEFOMEP (Centre for the Control of Taxpayers of Great Wealth) imposed a fine of 3.5 million euros on Stavros Papastavrou for the “undeclared” 5.4 million dollars that had been identified in his HSBC bank accounts. In other words, the notorious “Lagarde list”.
This was preceded by two audits by the audit services. The first one lasted 10 months and was completed in July 2015. According to what Papastavrou had publicly stated, this audit had not resulted in any evidence that “proved the concealment of income against him”. However, the case was not closed.
The second auditor, who had ‘dusted off’ Papastavrou’s assets and bank accounts, reserved his position, with the result that the case remained open. A new audit followed. This time the KEFOMEP imposed a fine of EUR 3,5 million.
Papastavrou’s lawyer was forced to pay the fine. Otherwise, he would have faced criminal prosecution, as according to the reports of the time, a case had already been filed with the Athens First Instance Prosecutor’s Office.
In a public statement, Papastavrou had referred to the “unfair” attribution of the fines, as he said he was not the actual beneficiary of the bank account in question. He also announced that he would proceed with the exercise of all ‘the legal actions provided for by the law, in order to have the injustice against him diagnosed by the judicial authorities and the relevant fine canceled’.
Indeed, according to Data Journalists, Papastavrou was later vindicated in the administrative courts, and his money was returned.
In January 2018, a criminal prosecution was brought against Stavros Papastavrou for the crime of fraud against the state on a felony level.
Specifically, in his conclusion, the Athens Prosecutor of the First Instance Court, George Kaloudis identified “reasonable suspicion for the commission of prosecuted acts” and specifically, “attempted fraud” in the degree of felony against St. Papastavrou, with the “direct complicity” of an Israeli businessman and his associate.
The prosecution and the acquittal
The prosecutor’s investigation concerned the 5.4 million dollars (5,386,374.49 to be precise), which had been traced in an account held by STABRI LTD in the Swiss bank HSBC.
According to the prosecution’s findings, Papastavrou and his relatives were posing as representatives of the company, which was based in the British Virgin Islands.
In 2014, when Papastavrou was asked by the State Tax Office and the KEFOMEP to justify the amount he held in HSBC, he submitted a document entitled “Deed Of Declaration”. The document was dated 10-6-2005.
According to it, Papastavrou and his relatives had entered into a “deed of trust” with an Israeli businessman, who appeared as the “beneficiary” of the money in the account, while Papastavrou and his relatives were trustees.
The document was allegedly signed because the Israeli businessman had been diagnosed with a terminal illness in order to “carry out his last will and instructions”.
However, according to the prosecution’s findings, this document was allegedly drawn up after the fact, in order to prove that Papastavrou and his relatives were not the real beneficiaries of this amount, but that the Israeli businessman was the beneficiary, who was not a tax resident of Greece but of Israel and therefore “was not obliged to declare this amount to the competent Greek tax authorities”.
Finally, in July 2020, Stavros Papastavrou was acquitted of the criminal charges against him. In particular, on 14 July 2020, the competent prosecutor made an acquittal recommendation to the Judicial Council, which was subsequently accepted.
Papastavrou had issued a statement on the matter. “The prosecutor’s proposal followed the also exonerative judgment of the investigating judge, who, judging that there was no evidence against me, did not even call me for a further apology,” he had said.
The relationship with Mareva Grabovski – Mitsotakis
Apart from his involvement with the judiciary, Papastavrou is closely linked to the Prime Minister’s family. In particular, in the past, he had been an associate of Mareva Grabovski-Mitsotakis.
In particular, in June 2007, MG CAPITAL ADVISORS ANONYMOUS COMPANY FOR ADVISORY SERVICES was founded, with the distinctive title MG CAPITAL ADVISORS.
The company’s Board of Directors at that time included, among others, Mareva Grabovski and Stavros Papastavrou. The lawyer remained on the Board of Directors of the company until August 2012. Soon after, the company was renamed Zeus+Dione, as it remains to this day.
In June 2020, Mareva Grabovski left the company’s management for the first time.
However, it is not the only professional connection between Stavros Papastavrou and Mareva Grabovski. St. Papastavrou is a lawyer for the Voyager 360 Ltd fund which managed Grabovski’s offshore company, Eternia Capital Management, which was in the Paradise Papers. That is, the revelations made worldwide about the millions hidden by the world’s powerful in tax havens, based on the leak of 13.4 million documents from two leading offshore management companies.
He had previously admitted the connection with Eternia, speaking to the newspaper “Ethnos”, as he had claimed that Eternia was his client, while he had admitted his business relationship with Voyager 360 Ltd, clarifying, however, that he did not have any ownership relationship with these companies.
Panama and Paradise Papers
Stavros Papastavrou’s name was also implicated in the Panama Papers list concerning the leak of the file of the Panamanian offshore law firm. The leak of this data was made in 2016 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a consortium of investigative journalists who processed around 11.5 million documents.
The well-known lawyer, participated from 2005 to 2014 in the BoD of the Panamanian companies, Green Shamrock Foundation and Diman Foundation, while from 2006 he became vice president of the Aisios Foundation, which still exists today.
Konstantinos Lanaras and Spyros Metaxas also participated in the Aisios Foundation. The latter was the lawyer who had been accused of money laundering by the former General Secretary of Armaments Ant. Kanda, from illegal activity.
Papastavrou initially replied to the investigating journalists that he did not remember the companies. Later, however, he claimed that he did them “on behalf of two family friends”, without reaping any financial benefits.
He also stated that the Boards of Directors of the companies and the foundation were intended to operate only if the owner of the company died, which never happened for any of the three companies.
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