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Greek Finance Minister Praised By FT In 2010 As Europe's "Top Politician" Is Now A Convicted Criminal
Back in 2010, a panel of Financial Times "experts" was asked to rank Europe's finance ministers. Nineteen European finance ministers were judged. Greece's then finance minister George Papaconstantinou was found to have the best political skills among the 19 EU ministers and got an over 8th rank overall. Specifically, as Keep Talking Greece reported then, the FT said Papaconstantinou had "the best political skills after displaying “panache” in his handling of the country’s economic crisis."
Here is some more laughable insight from these so-called "experts":
The ministers were ranked by leading economists based on political ability, economic performance and credibility in the markets.
The FT notes its surprise to see George Papaconstantinou named first on the category "political capacity." Papaconstantinou’s overall ranking was affected by the unfavorable economic situation in Greece and the unreliability of the country in the markets.
Marco Announziata from Italian bank UniCredit described the Greek Minister of Finance as “remarkably effective in investigating dangerous European policies to ensure domestic acceptance of unprecedented austerity measures and to restore a degree of investor confidence – almost impossible task.”
Eric Nielsen from Goldman Sachs bank noted that George Papaconstantinou “could be the ranking winner next year, should the Greek economy start to recover in 2011.”
Well, no.
Not only will G-Pap not be a ranking winner in 2011, or any other time considering the nation defaulted, and is about to be bailed out for the third and final time, unless it is prepared to exit the Eurozone once and for all (something which should have happened back in 2010) but where things get really awkward though for the FT and its "experts" is that this "top politician" is as of this moment a convicted criminal.
As AP reported, yesterday a special court acquitted Greece's former finance minister George Papaconstantinou of felony charges of breach of faith and doctoring a document Tuesday in a case concerning Greeks with bank accounts in Geneva. However, it still found him guilty of fabricating said documented and found him guilty of a lesser misdemeanor charge.
Papaconstantinou, 53, received a one-year suspended prison sentence.
The convicted "top political" criminal is lucky: he had faced a possible sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment over the felony charges after being accused of removing the names of three of his relatives from a list of Greeks with accounts at HSBC bank in Geneva. But hey this is Greece, and where bribes walk justice is mute. Not that the US is any better: at least in Greece bribes are under the table - in the US these are called "lobby dollars" and are perfectly legal.
More details on the first, of many, convicted Greek politicians:
The former minister had vehemently denied the charges against him. In a majority ruling, the panel of 13 judges found him guilty of doctoring a document but reduced the count to a misdemeanor.
He faces a maximum five-year sentence but will not spend time in jail as the offense can be suspended or converted to a fine. Sentencing was expected shortly after the verdict was read out in court.
The bank account list became known as the Lagarde List, named after Christine Lagarde who was France's finance minister at the time and who sent the information to Papaconstantinou in 2010. It was an extract of a list of HSBC Geneva account holders leaked by former bank employee Herve Falciani.
Successive Greek governments have come under criticism for not investigating all the names on the list to determine whether those on it had evaded taxes.
Papaconstantinou served as finance minister from late 2009 to mid-2011 and was the minister who negotiated Greece's original international bailout, under which the country in May 2010 began receiving rescue loans from other eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund in return for pushing through reforms to overhaul its economy.
The case was heard by a special court set up to handle trials against politicians. Of the 13 judges, eight called for a guilty verdict on the document- tampering charge, with three of them calling for a felony count and the other five a misdemeanor. The remaining five judges had called for an acquittal.
If only his "relatives" had stashed away a couple million in HSBC (in exchange for letting Greece bear the brunt of the European bailout of German banks using Greece as a scapegoat) the other 8 would have also called for an acquittal. Let this be a lesson to all those who listen to the Keynesyan Cargo Cult's urges to spend instead of save.
That said, we eagerly look forward to what the future of a post-Grexit Greece holds in store for its former government, as civil proceedings become increasingly less "civil" and more tribunalized, until one day someone finally gets the Ceausescu treatment.
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....isn't being a criminal a prerequisite for the position?
Well it's always good to have someone with the required skills for the job.....
… a one-year suspended prison sentence?
You get the same sentence for fucking a goat in public! ;-)
Looney
Someone I once knew is doing time in a federal prison for stealing cable, yet these people walk free. Ha Ha ROTFLMAO! It is the governments across the world that create these conditions who are the criminals!
Well, at least he didn't take a 30 minute 'joy ride' in the neighbor's car; that would have gotten him 5 years minimum.
That's one conviction, just eighteen more to go.
Let's have some clarity...
A "Convicted Criminal" politician is merely a plotician, whose activities have been made public and copied from the Private Ledger into the Public Ledger.
The cycle of cronyism. Of course at the start of his "career" he never thought he would end up taking the fall. So many of these "blind ambition" twats to be manipulated by the dark overlords, so little time.
Do what you're told...or under the bus you go.
i'll take 5 bumperstickers, please
So... You have 5 busses I presume?
How much does his vacation rental cost?
About 63 euro per day with meals, leisure suit and an hour in the exercise yard.
all politicians are criminals ... being "convicted" just means he's got street cred now
"guilty politican" is an oxymorn, verdad?
I think tautology is the word.
"pleonasm", to be exact
A one year sentence. I'm doing a cost benefit analysis.... Conclusion: "Fraud is worth it!"
What did I tell ya!
HAHAHAHAHA
Greece, what a fucking joke.
As I pointed out yesterday, there are far more deserving Greek candidates than Varoufuckthis for vitriol.
But a slap wrist seems a fair outcome for such behaviour!!!
It's hard to tell the TRUTH when you get paid to LIE...
I is hard to make someone understand something when their salary depends on them not understanding it.
whatever (the allusions and the "Ceasescu treatment"), do I sense a small bit of... envy? Lo and Behold, Greece is having a fraction of the justice it should. That's a lot moar then many other countries, isn't it?
dreaming of guillotines is one thing. but a serious analysis of what usually happens... makes crystal clear that the use of those methods usually results in the first users being subjected to the same treatment, later
the old adage is "The Revolution Eats It's Own Children". RIP Terry Pratchett, he had in his fictional novels the Tyrant of Ankh-Morpork building a palace prison with his eventual permanence in mind
now, Try This At Home. The justice part, not the piano wire. (And no, before you intervene in this tone, in the EU we have plenty of powerful people that faced and face justice. ZH has even written the articles)
the German adage to that is "So wie man im Walde ruft, so tönt es zurück"
<-- I gave my love a cherry, that had no stone...
<-- I gave my love a chicken, that had no bone...
"Panache".
That's rich.
Dont laugh..
Joe Biden's whole career was/is based on nothing but a doofus type of panache...with a twist of lime... and hes a VP of the USA
Speaking of Greek retrospectives, this Hendry smackdown of Stiglitz never, ever gets old...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAAnV-AolTI
Next up for the spotlight should be Natalie Jaresko, USAID, and frankly the entire State Dept for using suitcase full of money diplomacy. Batter up!
They should give this smart guy a fucking medal!
FT has many PHD's in the school of spinning lies. Egg on their journalism paid site skill-set business model, flushed down the toilet. Grab me a tissue.
We need some "Criminals of The Year Awards"
Plenty of contestants.
No mention of the fucking fraud facilitated by the Goldmen Sacks and their evasion of anything legal regarding Greece?
Whats next? Jon Corzine special minister appointment to Greece?
Yet another shining socialist success story! Throw him on the wood pile!
So the guy has "Pancake", we all can get to that level, its as common as, ok now I want a short stack.
SHOW ME THE REPARATIONS!
ass fuckers vs nazis.... all bets open.
wait 'till vietnam asks for their reparations ...
Whenever the MSM likes a politician, you can be sure something is wrong with him (he's either a puppet or criminal or most likely both).
"Suspended-a sentence? He went free that day! I knew then that for justice I must go to Don Corleone."
The FT is a Rothschild-owned rag and anyone they support they have their hooks and crooks in.
Baldrick Fills out the Application to Run for Parliament:
Blackadder: Now, let's talk about your criminal record.
Baldrick (proudly): None!
Blackadder (disgusted): Oh, come now. You're running for Parliament. I'll just put down "fraud" and "sodomy".
Are not the pages of a financial newspaper the anteroom of a guilty verdict?
Soros is also a convicted felon for insider trading, yet the press just tells us how great he is for shorting the pound before it collapsed. Wonder if he had any connections on that trade? And why does he always work to subvert the US? He did rat out his fellow Jews when he was a kid, so maybe being a traitor came naturally to him.
He's not that good a politician. The really skilled ones never get convicted of anything.
Why anyone would afford any credence to what the Rotschile-owned FT or GS say? Let alone pay for it...
The media and banksters are in cahoots (both jewish controlled). Those 2 in turn have the cohones of a good portion of western politicians in their pockets. Any more questions?
It is a fine line between the two on the best of days.
All pols and crats are criminals.
Some have yet to be convicted, but they are all criminals.
The banksters need to repay us.