Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2012, and the arrest it reports took place on 28 October that year; the description of Christine Lagarde as head of the IMF was accurate then, and the later outcome of the case is not covered.
Tax evasion must be fought. That is the message governments across the European Union are sending from north to south, especially in countries whose citizens are fed up with cuts. Of course, those words are meaningless, because to fight tax fraud you have to find the fraudsters, and it may turn out (as it already has) that the real fraudsters are the ones in charge of investigating the fraud.
On Sunday, Greek police arrested the editor of a magazine that had published the “Lagarde list”, a list with the names of more than 2,000 Greeks holding millions in Swiss bank accounts. The arrested journalist, Costas Vaxevanis, accused of breaking data protection laws, says he has simply done his job, which is to publish the truth, and claims the Greek government wants to silence the press.
The famous Lagarde list was handed to the Greek authorities in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was never published because, according to the Greek authorities, it was lost.
Costas Vaxevanis says he received it from an anonymous person keen to bring the truth to light. And it is no wonder the list got lost when it contains the names of well-known businesspeople and political figures, including representatives of the governing party, New Democracy, and of PASOK.
“I am only a journalist and I did my job. I am not the one who should be standing trial, but the ministers who appear on the list, and those who hid it.”
In this case we are talking about Greece, but the country is a reflection of what must be happening in the rest of Europe, including Spain, where a new sewer is uncovered every day.
Cases like this show once again that citizens are mice ruled by cats, as Tommy Douglas said in his speech in his day.
What is clear is that, in the wake of this arrest, Greeks are rallying behind the journalist, and some say tempers are starting to run high: while the real “fraudsters” go on enjoying their privileges, all that is left for everyone else is austerity.
Featured image: Daniel Lobo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
