During the late 1990s and 2000’s top political and military officials in the Greek Ministry of Defence, and particularly in the procurement office, were involved in a proven web of corruption involving bribes paid by foreign (primarily German and Russian) companies in return for favourable defence contracts. Former Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos is currently imprisoned on convictions of money laundering, and many others have or will face charges in the continually expanding investigation.
In recent months several key players have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and provide detailed testimony in the far-reaching case. Among them are Antonis Kantas, the number two official in the MoD’s procurement office who has admitted receiving more than €15 million in bribes, and Panos Efstathiou, a retired military officer and the former Athens representative of German companies known to have bribed Greek officials: Rheinmetall and its subsidiary, STN Atlas. (Read here our story on Rheinmetall.)
Recently attention has also turned to the role played by the German leadership of these companies and specifically by Ulrich Grillo who is currently the president of the powerful Federation of German Industries (BDI). At the time in question in the early 2000’s Mr Grillo was the financial director of the arms division of Rheinmetall, as well as CEO of the subsidiary company STN Atlas. Previous reports have examined whether the bribes could have been paid without Mr Grillo’s knowledge. According to Mr Efstathiou, if only from the height of his commission, the leadership of STN Atlas must have known about the payments. Mr Grillo refutes this. The German businessman denies all knowledge of the bribes.
Now according to Deutsche Welle’s greek edition, Der Spiegel is reporting new evidence implying Mr Grillo might have knowledge of the illegal payments, specifically from the quarterly reports sent by Panos Efstathiou from January 2000 to the summer of 2001, which give detailed accounts of the activities of STN Atlas in Athens. The recipient of the reports was STN Atlas CEO, Ulrich Grillo.
In one of these reports dated January 30th 2000 there is a reference to a meeting that took place in Athens between Ulrich Grillo, two STN Atlas managers and the then general manager of the MoD’s procurement department Antonis Kantas, i.e. the man who has admitted to receiving bribes from the German company headed by Grillo. According to the report during the meeting the ‘status and priorities’ of STN Atlas’s programmes in Greece were discussed.
Der Spiegel contacted Mr Grillo about the meeting but the BDI president claimed that after 14 years he could not remember if he had read the reports from Mr Efstathiou and who he met with when he was in Athens. However he claims that is was a ‘routine meeting with the top procurement official.’ Mr Grillo continues to insist that he had no knowledge of the bribes that were happening under his leadership.
It should be noted that both in Bremen, home to STN Atlas, and in Athens, prosecutors are examining the roles German executives may have played in the bribing of Greek officials. While there is speculation Mr Grillo might be among them, nothing is official.