By J.-W. SCHÄFER
30.04.2010
SourceHe is a very, very rich man – and will soon profit from very, very generous German hand-outs…Spiros Latsis, who according to ‘Forbes’ has a fortune of €4 billion, is the wealthiest man in Greece.
He lives a life of luxury enjoyed in private. He mingles with leading lights from the world of entertainment and business. And politics!The 63-year-old made his money through oil, shipping, housing – and banking. He lives by Lake Geneva and has villas in numerous European cities as well as yachts and private jets.
“He lives discretely and shuns publicity,” wrote the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ newspaper.With his EFG Group, Latsis helped bail out the Greek government amongst others in 1998 by buying the bankrupt Kretabank from the state for a surprisingly high sum of money.
Afterwards, the government let him come on board with oil giant Hellenic Petroleum.
In Greece this doesn’t surprise anyone – you help each other out.
Just like when Latsis’ bank took on €12 billion high interest government bonds under very beneficial circumstances. That helped the Greek state make ends meet again – and boosted the billionaire’s bank account by no small amount thanks to the high interest.And that effect is ongoing and will soon pay dividends again thanks to
German taxpayers…
The
IMF and the Eurozone countries, above all Germany, will help out Greece to the tune of €45 billion in new credit. That will allow the essentially-bankrupt country to pay interest and old, running out debts on time – amongst them Latsis’ government bonds.
“His bank might hold the largest amount of Greek bonds of all,” one Frankfurt banker told BILD.And so starting from next week, the German taxpayer will be handing over cash to a Greek billionaire – practically filling up the bag for him.