The Solomonic solution to the thorny question Tculpable conduct of the crime of dishonesty by bank managers or Financial Stability Fund managers; the government is trying to find with the amendment presented in the parliament. upon which the Bank of Greece will assume the unique role of arbitrator in all prosecutorial investigations and will essentially determine their outcome until the Court forms its own opinion.
As it is known, with the recent amendments made to the Criminal Code, it was planned that criminal disloyalty to banking institutions is prosecuted ex officio, while the previous corresponding provision was prosecuted only by the summons of the bank’s management. This change has caused a great uproar in the banking system, as they claim that bank managers will be subject to ex officio criminal prosecution at any time, especially when granting loans.
In fact, the banking sector has informed the government that the threat of prosecution could lead to a “freeze” on critical activities such as debt repayment. Nevertheless, from the beginning and until today, the Minister of Justice, George Floridis; asserts his view that “disloyalty should not be prosecuted by citation, that is, those who commit disloyalty should prosecute themselves.”
To overcome this impasse, the joint ministries of finance and justice introduced an amendment to establish an interim stage in any criminal investigation for the offense of dishonesty against banks and the Financial Stability Facility. Prosecutors will request a special expert opinion from the Bank of Greece, which will assess whether the established banking rules were followed by the executives accused of infidelity.
This opinion will, in fact, “lock” the result of the preliminary examination, because, as the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Christos Dimas, characterized the parliament, “whoever gives the loan or restructures or sells public shares, such as Financial Stability; The fund should be sure that if it follows the rules, it will not have problems.”
What does the change say?
In the amendment “In order to investigate the banking affairs of the report of the inspectors of the Bank of Greece”, it is stated that:
During the preliminary investigation for the criminal act provided for by the second part of part 1 of Article 390 of the Criminal Code (law 4619/2019, A’95), if the violation is directed against a credit or financial institution and refers to restructuring; or the cancellation of loans, debts or debts, or is directed against the Financial Stability Fund, the competent prosecutor’s office requests from the Bank of Greece the proposal of two (2) of its inspectors, who, based on the evidence of the case materials, draw up a report specifying the regulator regulating the transactions of each entity the violation or non-violation of the framework and the existence of certain and final damage caused to the property of the credit or financial institution related to the possible violation; or the Financial Stability Fund, according to the purpose of the founding law, as well as an assessment of its style.
Dimas: Risk of freezing of economic activity
The Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Christos Dimas, defending the amendment at the plenary session of the Parliament, noted that the knowledge of experts is essentially used, and the regulation allows to determine impartially whether the objective condition of treason is: present.
As he mentioned. “The prosecution does not depend on the subjective weights of the prosecutor’s office. A special form of expertise on complex issues is defined. Whoever lends or restructures or sells the shares of the state, like the Financial Stability Fund, must be sure that they will not have problems if they follow the rules. Otherwise, I think we all understand that loans, restructuring, disinvestment of banks would freeze economic activity.”
The Ministry of Finance reminds that in 2017, by Law 4472, the House of Parliament adopted a relevant provision, where a special procedure was again defined, a special opinion of the representative of the Bank of Greece was also provided for, and there are significant similarities. current proposed regulation.
