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Greek Rich List News
EU overlords assault Greece’s Mount Welfare
The Greek state is being robbed of millions of euros each year by its citizens fraudulently claiming disability benefits on a scale that would make sense only “if Greece had fought in the Vietnam war”, according to a government minister.
An investigation has been announced. But the failure to clamp down sooner is unlikely to impress the international inspectors who are arriving in Athens this week to assess the government’s efforts to reduce the country’s debt.
Despite repeated promises to act, Greece has thus far seemed powerless to tackle the tax evasion and fraud that are costing billions. It was announced recently that companies were avoiding up to €32 billion (£27 billion) in taxes a year while individuals, many of them wealthy professionals or businessmen, owed €5 billion. This is more than 10% of the country’s €350 billion debt.
Thousands of Greeks are suspected of collecting the pensions of dead relatives at a cost of yet more millions to the state. About 800,000 civil servants can claim a bonus simply for turning up to work on time.
“In the past, laws have been passed but the necessary decrees have not been signed,” a senior government official said in an effort to explain the continuing waste. “The poor functioning of the state has been a serious obstacle to proceeding with reforms.”
Growing doubts over Greece’s ability to deal with its debts have intensified speculation about whether it will be able to stay in the single currency. Talks on reducing the debt in exchange for the release of loans from the European Union broke down on Friday evening. Economists are debating whether a “velvet divorce” is possible under which Greece would abandon the euro without triggering a break-up of the currency.
Inspectors from the so-called troika — the European commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — are expected this week to seek guarantees of progress with promised fiscal and structural reforms from Lucas Papademos, the Greek prime minister, in exchange for a previously agreed €130 billion bailout.
The Greek health ministry, at least, is notching up some results: after months of research it announced that it had identified parts of the country with suspiciously high incidences of severe handicaps, suggesting “sufferers” were fraudulently claiming benefits. The region of Viotia in central Greece, for example, had a disproportionately high number of asthma sufferers. The island of Kalymnos is apparently ridden with mental illness. On the tourist island of Zante, 600 people — almost 2% of the population — were said to be blind.
It also turned out that more than 1,000 people in Greece’s second city of Thessaloniki were listed as “severely disabled”. According to Markos Bolaris, a deputy health minister, this number “would have been appropriate if Greece had fought in the Vietnam war”. Some 210,000 people receive benefits for serious disabilities, which Bolaris described as a “provocatively” high number. It is suspected many claimants should not qualify for benefits but have bribed their doctors to give them the necessary paperwork saying that they do.
The ministry has pledged to investigate. The government hopes to trim at least €250m from the €6.2 billion spent each year on social welfare benefits. Will that be enough to satisfy the EU?
As part of the EU bailout agreement, Greece is urging private bondholders to accept a “haircut” of at least 50% on what they are owed. Some are refusing to co-operate in the hope that Greece will eventually default on its debt, allowing them to profit from insurance payouts.
Failure to secure a deal with private bondholders could put at risk further EU aid, without which Greece will not be able to meet the repayments of €14.5 billion in bonds falling due in March. This could lead to a default.
With unemployment at 18% — among those under 25 it is 43.5% — and with no prospect of the economy emerging any time soon from the abyss, the picture is so grim that many Greeks have abandoned the country. In despair of finding work in the cities, others are going back to the land.
Behind the exodus from Athens is the widespread fear that things will get worse: the government’s failure to meet fiscal targets has prompted speculation that the visiting troika inspectors may demand new austerity measures to make up the shortfall. Greece fears being pared to the bone.
Source: The Sunday Times, by Matthew Campbell and Philip Pangalos
Clinton’s billionaire backer buys Soho House in £250million deal
The fashionable Soho House chain of private members’ clubs has been sold in a record breaking deal that will make its founder – club king Nick Jones – around £25 million while his business partner Richard Caring is set to land £125million.
Soho House New York poolside, during a Sex and The City episode.
The sale of the group – for £250million – makes it the most valuable private members’ club of its kind in the world and marks an astonishing rise for a tiny Soho haunt set up in 1995 that grew into a global empire.
The club, which has four branches in London – the original Soho House, Shoreditch House, Electric House in Notting Hill and High Road House in Chiswick – was set up as an exclusive but relaxed venue for the great and good in London’s film and media industries as an antidote to the stuffy traditional clubs of St James’s.
Now it will form the jewel in the crown of US supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Mr Burkle, who is worth an estimated $3.2 billion, is said to be buying a 60 per cent stake in the group.
Mr Jones is selling half his 20 per cent holding for around £25million, while his business partner, West End restaurateur Mr Caring, will make around £125 million from the sale of a 50 per share. He will continue to own around 30 per cent.
Mr Jones, who is married to broadcaster Kirsty Young, will stay on as chief executive while Mr Burkle will become chairman.
The deal will help fund the expansion of the group, which has new openings planned for Mumbai, Istanbul, Toronto and Chicago in the next two years and a number of other sites “under consideration.”
Mr Jones said: “Ron believes in the way we do things and the resilience of our membership offering, as well as sharing our vision to create a global company with the same integrity and commitment to quality that was at the heart of our very first Soho House in London.” As well as the three London clubs, the company also owns clubs in Miami, Berlin, West Hollywood and New York.
It also owns restaurants such as Hoxton Grill, Pizza East and Cecconi’s and hotels such as the Dean Street Townhouse and Babington House in Somerset. Mr Caring paid £105million for his 80 per cent stake in Soho House in 2008 in a deal that valued the business at just above £130million. It has doubled in value since then.
In 2007 Mr Caring paid £90million for Annabel’s and three other nightclubs – Mark’s Club, George and Harry’s Bar.
Source: London Evening Standard
Casino offers would be millionaire 500,000 Euros
A man who hit the 43 million Euro jackpot in a casino in Austria has only been offered 500,000 Euros of his winnings. According to Casinos Austria, it was a technical error.
The screen of a ‘Dolphin Treasure’ slot machine.
Behar Merlaku has claimed damages of five million Euros against the casino who have denied the Swiss resident his money. The case has been ajorned until April after the two sides failed to reach an agreement in court in Feldkirch.
The 26-year-old trainee floor-layer was visiting the casino in Bregenz, Austria with his wife in March 2011 when he hit the jackpot. The red light signalling “Jackpot” lit up on the “Dolphin Treasure” machine at around 4am and the fanfare was heard around the casino. For a short time Merlaku was a millionaire having apparently won 42,949,672.86 Euros. The casino maintain however that “it was a software error”.
Merlaku has demanded five million Euros from the casino who have offered just 500,000 Euros. The wife of the winner from Switzerland and three employees from the casino will be summoned to the next hearing. A technical report about the machine will also be compiled through which the end to Merlaku’s game can be reconstructed.
The apparently dud machine was removed from the casino immediately and was taken to a warehouse where it will now be reclaimed and tested. According to the casino, such a machine has a maximum win of 4,500 Euros.
Source: Austrian Times
