Geneva: A Swiss banking source said on Friday
that Greek authorities have requested the blocking of about
USD 215 million deposited in a Zurich fund manager by a Greek
businessman.
"This money has been blocked at the request of the
authorities," the banking source said, confirming
information published about the freeze today in a Swiss and a
German newspaper.
Greek authorities have 90 days to formally request the
blocking of the funds said the source.
According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the Swiss
Handelszeitung, the frozen funds belong to the Greek
businessman Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, an Athenian entrepreneur
who made his fortune in chemicals.
At the initiative of the Athens prosecutor, the Swiss
were asked to block funds deposited in three accounts opened
for Lavrentiadis and they were frozen.
A deputy spokeswoman for the Swiss Department of Justice
and Police of Switzerland, Ingrid Ryser, said "we do not
comment in principle on a provisional remedy in connection
with criminal proceedings."
The Proton small private bank was bailed out by the Greek
state in October.
Lavrentiadis became president of the Alapis chemicals
company and the principal shareholder of the small private
bank Proton.
This bank was bailed out by the Greece in October 2011,
and has been the subject of a criminal investigation there
since January 2011.
PTI