Greek authorities removed the anonymity of two whistleblowers on Thursday in the Novartis bribery case, which implicates several government officials, including two former prime ministers, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international journalist network that deals with organized crime, writes crime and corruption worldwide.
The move by the country’s financial crime prosecution, according to Greek media, paves the way for possible criminal charges against the very witnesses who helped uncover the scandal, he notes and continues:
The two witnesses, known in the past under the pseudonyms Aikaterini Kelesi and Maximos Sarafis, have now been identified as Maria Marangeli and Filistor Destebasidis. Marangelis, a former secretary to the CEO of Novartis in Greece, became a protected witness in 2017, while Destepabasidis, a former director of Novartis, joined the following year.
The decision to remove their anonymity was made possible by a legislative amendment to Greece’s criminal law that came into force on May 1, which gives prosecutors discretion to reveal the identities of witnesses.
The development comes four years after Novartis admitted to violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant paid $347 million to settle charges with US authorities over alleged bribes to Greek officials aimed at boosting sales, including influencing drug prices. These practices may have cost Greek taxpayers around €3 billion between 2000 and 2015, a period that overlaps with the country’s financial crisis.
Instead of launching a thorough investigation into the Novartis case, the Greek government targeted prosecutors and journalists who revealed evidence of bribes to politicians and health care providers.
Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras welcomed the lifting of the protection measures, saying “the truth about the Novartis conspiracy will be revealed”.
Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who has been linked to suspicious payments, called Marangelis and Destepasidis “slanderers” and said they were being led by others, adding that they “couldn’t have concocted such monstrous lies on their own”.
In 2022, a special court acquitted several officials involved in the investigation into the scandal, including former anti-corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, who was removed from office after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party took power in 2019 .Prosecutors also dropped charges against journalists accused of criminal association for reporting the case.
Transparency International ranked Greece 59th out of 180 countries in its 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, the third lowest score within the EU.
The OCCRP publication here
Read also:
Kasselakis for Novartis scandal: Shame for the country – How will witnesses dare to report cases in the future?
Novartis Scandal Famine: Government Mortgages Protected Witness Protection Process
New Left to lift Novartis witness protection: “Impunity for abusers, terrorism for whistleblowers”
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