The important thing witness on the bribery case filed by the monetary prosecution speaks to Documento
A brand new dimension within the defiant submitting by the Monetary Crimes Prosecutor’s Workplace of a file with complaints from vitality giants for alleged bribery of the final supervisor of Enterprise Greece Aki Sclavou provides the confession of the principle witness in Documento.
That is an worker of one of many two corporations, whose testimony Norwegian Statkraft relied on in its 13-page report back to the prosecution that Documento revealed, requesting that he change into a public curiosity witness. Lastly, after two years, the Monetary Crimes Prosecutor’s Workplace filed the case file with out even summoning the informant for examination. Documento met the important thing witness within the case. The girl, who’s a lawyer by career, describes intimately what occurred. As she stories, not solely was she by no means known as to be examined as a witness within the Statkraft case, however she is now accused of the crime of defamation after one of many concerned individuals sued her. In truth, on this case many questions are additionally raised by the actions of a particular public prosecutor with attainable disciplinary and even prison duties. However let’s have a look at what the principle witness says.
How did you become involved within the case?
I used to be employed as a authorized advisor at Solarcentury Holdings Ltd and when its operational firm (OpCo) was established in Greece, i.e. Solarcentury Companies Greece, I moved there. The aim of the OpCo was the completion of the licensing and the development of a photovoltaic park with a capability of 284 MW, which in December 2019 was included within the provisions of Legislation 3894/2010 as a strategic funding by the corporate Consortium Photo voltaic Energy and which Solarcentury Holdings Ltd was to to purchase. The authorized audit of the funding was accomplished in July 2020 and at the start of August we had been knowledgeable that Statkraft was going to amass your complete group and would select international locations the place it needed to function, amongst them Greece.
So what did you discover?
As a way to improve the worth of the corporate in Greece (OpCo) they needed to license three extra photovoltaic parks by Enterprise Greece.
Nonetheless, through the due diligence, issues arose with the lands. In most of them there have been no title deeds however that they had been acquired by usufructuary, which might trigger an issue of their financing by any banking group, lease agreements had not been signed, and so on. As a authorized division, I knowledgeable my superior, that’s, the director of authorized providers of the group, which displeased the CEO of the corporate (s.s.: Okay.Okay. talked about under), who needed me to cover it.
How did Mr. Slavos become involved?
The CEO of the corporate incessantly knowledgeable the corporate that he was talking with Mr. Sclavos and informing him of issues that contradicted my authorized opinions. For instance, he had conveyed to the corporate that if I didn’t give my approval by a sure date, then our utility could be old-fashioned and rejected. I wish to observe that Enterprise Greece has no deadlines relating to the submission of funding plans.
What had truly occurred was that Okay.Okay. he had been knowledgeable that if he submitted the paperwork by a sure date, then they’d have time to be posted on an digital system and thought of on the instantly following assembly of the subsequent inter-ministerial committee.
Let’s return to the Enterprise Greece government.
On the final day of the deadline for the inclusion of the funding mission in Enterprise Greece, Mr. Sklavos known as me, whom I had met in an excellent and pleasant ambiance throughout a earlier go to to Enterprise. Within the telephone name he advised me that he couldn’t go the minutes that I had despatched him as a result of I had put a particular situation on the shares. I used to be stunned as a result of it’s recognized to everybody that the administration doesn’t management the content material of the paperwork however solely their existence. After some time, a Solarcentury government known as me and requested me to vary the minutes by 16:30 as a result of, as he advised me, the CEO wouldn’t have time to file them throughout the deadline and subsequently the funding could be misplaced as a consequence of my mistake.
What have you learnt about Mr. Sclavos’ alleged investments?
Initially I need to say that I by no means stated that the Slave took cash nor may I do know it. What I stated is what’s talked about within the Statkraft report, that’s, that the proprietor of the Consortium was saying that he owed her a favor and would do no matter she advised him, whereas she had talked about that she had given him 50,000 euros. However she was saying loads…
Has the Monetary Crimes Prosecutor’s Workplace ever known as you?
No, by no means. I discovered for the primary time that the file that had been created has entered the archive from Documento’s publication. Not even the regulation agency that has taken over the case (and my very own protection) knowledgeable me about it.
Should not they’ve known as you usually?
In fact he needed to.
Questions on when the case file was filed
On the similar time, many questions come up relating to when precisely the case file was entered into the file by the Monetary Crimes Prosecutor’s Workplace. In response to info from Documento, the case file was filed in July 2023. Nonetheless, in line with an official doc of the Prosecutor’s Workplace of First Occasion, the case file was open till November 2023.
In additional element, the important thing witness is charged with the crime of defamation after a lawsuit filed in opposition to her by one of many events concerned within the case and has been referred to trial. In November 2023, the deputy prosecutor of the primary courts, Panagiotis Paraskevaidis, who’s dealing with the defamation case, despatched a letter to the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Workplace. It refers to a certificates of progress of the Monetary Crimes Prosecutor’s Workplace dated June 12, 2023. Because it states, the file with the complaints of the 2 corporations “is on the stage of preliminary examination and is pending within the palms of a prosecutor”. In the identical doc, nevertheless, the prosecutor Paraskevaidis emphasizes that on November 24, 2023, after his phone communication with the Financial Crime Division, he was knowledgeable that “as a result of complexity of the case file, it’s nonetheless on the preliminary examination stage”. It’s putting {that a} prosecuting official cites “phone communication” with the monetary prosecution as a substitute of requesting a case progress certificates once more. Questions additionally come up as to when the case file was lastly filed. Summer season 2023 or later?
The historical past
However let’s look once more at what the 2 corporations had reported to the prosecutor’s authorities, citing the lawyer’s testimony. In October 2020, Solarcentury Holdings knowledgeable Statkraft {that a} Greek worker had reported a bribe to an Enterprise Greece government. In response to the report back to the monetary prosecutors, the worker complained that one of many “co-investors”, I.Z., had “bribed with 50,000 euros the director of strategic investments of Enterprise Greece Aki Sklavos, with a view to make sure the inclusion in quick standing monitor from Enterprise Greece for the 284 MW mission”. In response to the witness, I.Z. he was stated to have taken varied actions to “make sure that Mr. Sklavos would obtain additional funds in relation to a 750 MW mission” that they needed to be fast-tracked.
The witness additionally spoke of two extra funds, amounting to five,000 euros every, to an individual lively within the RES sector in Greece with excessive positions in corporations. It was about him Okay.Okay.who had a collection of “conferences and communications” with “Enterprise Greece executives, ministers of the Mitsotakis authorities and the co-investors earlier than the 284 MW funding entered quick monitor standing”, who then filed a lawsuit in opposition to her for defamation .
In response to the informant, Okay.Okay. he primarily communicated with Akis Sclavos. The aim of those conferences was to advertise Solarcentury as a purchaser of Consortium Photo voltaic and “encourage the inclusion of the 284 MW mission in quick monitor standing.”
“Indications of bribery”
Following the worker’s complaints, Statkraft carried out an inside investigation with a view to set up whether or not or not the complaints had been true. As it’s identified within the report, from the investigation “no proof was discovered to show that Mr. Sclavos or different authorities officers had been financed.” Nonetheless, “incidents had been found that…had been thought-about suspicious” and “nevertheless incomplete the proof was, it factors to the fee of bribery.”
For the Enterprise Greece government, it’s underlined that “recognized” e-mail “reveals that… he granted enterprise benefits relating to the 284 MW and 750 MW tasks and behaved in a method that seems to be opposite to his function as an worker of an impartial physique”. In response to the report, Mr Sklavos is alleged to have “helped formulate a quick monitor technique for the 284MW mission by organizing conferences with ministers on behalf of Solarcentury after which attending the conferences himself to advertise Solarcentury as the customer of Consortium Photo voltaic”.
For the 750 MW mission, Statkraft’s investigation concluded that “the submission of a file to Enterprise Greece doesn’t appear to have met the authorized necessities for being included within the quick monitor”. Particularly, the “property rights for the mission didn’t seem to satisfy the necessities of Legislation 4608/2019 on Strategic Investments”. Additionally, in line with an electronic mail despatched by Okay.Okay., “Mr. Sklavos had agreed to scale back the conventional utility evaluation interval from two months to 2 weeks, with a view to make sure that Solarcentury’s utility could be submitted to the D assembly Ministerial Committee in October 2020”. This “was needed to maximise Solarcentury’s means to entry capacity-constrained electrical energy transmission networks.”
In response to Okay.Okay., “Mr. Sklavos decreased the standard time as a result of he owed a favor to I.Z.” That’s, the particular person named by the worker as having given a bribe of fifty,000 euros to Mr. Sclavos.
Two funds of €50,000
The subpoena additionally referred to 2 funds of fifty,000 euros every “to 3rd events” which had been indicated by the “co-investor” I.Z. relating to the 284 MW mission. The primary of the funds involved an organization which allegedly “maintains digital workplaces in London” and a store in central Athens “with no distinctive signal”. This firm had “neither a useful web site nor a public profile”.
The second fee was made to an organization lively within the subject of actual property brokerage. In response to the report, “no contract was discovered to justify the fee and that providers had been truly rendered.”
Statkraft’s investigation discovered no connection between these corporations and Mr. Sclavos, nevertheless, many “indicators indicating that this was a suspicious fee” had been recognized.
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