Greek Authorities Report Over $13Bln In Tax Evasion, Money Laundering In 4 Years

Greece's Independent Authority for Public Revenue on Monday revealed that from 2016 to 2019, more than 7,400 cases of tax evasion, money laundering and the non-payment of debts cost the government 12 billion euros ($13.1 billion)

ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2020) Greece's Independent Authority for Public Revenue on Monday revealed that from 2016 to 2019, more than 7,400 cases of tax evasion, money laundering and the non-payment of debts cost the government 12 billion Euros ($13.1 billion).

Over the four-year period, the public revenue office identified more than 800 cases of tax evasion, with the unpaid tax bill totaling 1.75 billion euros. All the information has been provided to a special anti-money laundering task force,� the Greek newspaper Naftemporiki reported.

During the same period, more than 6,400 cases of suspected money laundering were opened. These cases were related to unpaid public debts of more than 10.4 billion euros.

Additionally, the information of more than 4,150 taxpayers suspected of money laundering were passed to the relevant authorities, the newspaper stated.

Tax evasion and the non-payment of debts contributed significantly to the financial crisis that began in Greece in 2008. Then-French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde passed a database containing the personal information of approximately 2,000 tax evaders to the Greek government in 2010, which was eventually made public in 2012 and included a number of politicians.

Greece received three international bailouts totaling 326 billion euros and introduced severe austerity measures to manage the financial crisis. According to a report compiled by the country's Public Debt Management Agency and published on December 24, Greece's debt ratio is predicted to fall from 181 percent of GDP in 2018 to 173 percent of GBP when 2019's figures are released, which will still be the highest in the European Union.