Greek Parliament expands probe of ex-finance minister over Swiss accounts

ATHENS, Greece – Greece's Parliament has expanded an investigation of former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou over his handling of data on Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.

Lawmakers voted 234-21 Thursday to add criminal breach-of-duty charges to the parliamentary probe under way against the 51-year-old Socialist who served as finance minister between 2009 and 2011, and negotiated the country's bailout agreement with other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

French authorities gave the list of names to Athens in 2010 as Greece's economy was struck by a major crisis. But Greek authorities failed to investigate the data for potential tax evasion.

Papaconstantinou spoke in Parliament before the vote and angrily denied any wrongdoing, arguing he had requested the data and passed and forwarded it to state fraud investigators.