Greek magazine publisher in court after Swiss bank depositors named
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Greek publisher has appeared in court following the publication in his magazine of a list of the names of more than 2,000 Greek residents with Swiss bank accounts, a case that has caused political controversy in the crisis-hit country.
Costas Vaxevanis was in court Monday on a misdemeanor charge of violating data protection laws, after the weekend publication in Hot-Doc magazine of a list of alleged depositors at an HSBC bank in Switzerland. The trial was postponed until Thursday.
The published names were allegedly taken from data on 24,000 HSBC customers that the bank reported stolen in 2010. The Greece-related names were passed to the Greek government by French authorities.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former officials were recently questioned in parliament for allegedly failing to investigate the Greek list for potential tax fraud.