Greece: Ex-Official Avoids Prison

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/world/europe/greece-ex-official-avoids-prison.html

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A former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, was found guilty on Tuesday of tampering with a list of about 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, but he was spared prison time. A court found that Mr. Papaconstantinou, 53, had removed the names of three relatives from the list. The list was given to him in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, then the French finance minister, in an effort to help curb tax evasion. The court reduced the first charge against him, doctoring a document, to a misdemeanor from a felony, and imposed a one-year suspended prison term. He was cleared of a second charge of attempted breach of faith. The failure of the authorities to investigate the so-called Lagarde list, a potential source of much-needed tax revenue, fueled widespread anger in Greece during years of austerity.