Tsipras & SYRIZA Corruption Scandal

[Reaper]

ATHENS – Former premier Alexis Tsipras and his Radical Left SYRIZA party could be investigated for claiming that 10 rival politicians took bribes from the Swiss drug company Novartis as nine have been cleared and not a shred of evidence has been produced from testimony of four whistleblowers, three of whom remain secret.

https://www.thenationalherald.com/26...artis-scandal/

[Don Giovanni]

To be honest, I believe Novartis did in fact give bribes, they just can't prove it under the law and they managed to get away with it this time. They were caught doing this in the US twice now and will be forced to make a billion dollar settlement with their government:

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/...ck-lawuit-stat

Six years after federal prosecutors first targeted Novartis for an alleged kickback scheme involving $10,000 dinners and fishing trips for doctors, signs pointed to the Swiss drugmaker finally having its day in court. Now, it looks like that may not happen.

Novartis could be approaching a billion-dollar settlement with the U.S. government as part of a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the company of bribing doctors to boost subscriptions of its drugs, sources told Stat. Novartis declined to comment Thursday on the possible settlement.

A settlement in the Manhattan federal suit could wind down a second major investigation into Novartis’ business practices after four Greek government officials were cleared in April as part of a wide-ranging bribery probe alleging payments between the company and 10 politicians.

Corruption investigators returned a report to the Greek Parliament listing only former health minister Andreas Loverdos’ name as part of the probe, but Kathimerini reported investigators found no evidence Loverdos ever received a bribe.

However, other investigations into Novartis have gained more traction in recent years, including a $390 million civil settlement with the feds in 2015 on claims it worked with specialty pharmacies to push two of its drugs in exchange for paying rebates.

In addition, Novartis was flagged in former U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian collusion investigation in November 2017 after Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, acknowledged receiving $1.2 million from the company. NBC News reported a senior Novartis official said the payments followed Cohen pledging access to the Trump administration after his inauguration.

[Reaper]

Yes, the company has done it everywhere and everywhere there is evidence - except in greece. This was an election ploy by Tsipras to blacken the ND name. It almost worked given the history of Greek scandals involving bribery - Siemens etc..

[Reaper]

It just gets better and better!

[Reaper]

[Don Giovanni]

I don't like Syriza and I think their party should be thrown into the dustbin, but this Sabby Mionis character is bullshitting. I think he's a punk and the fact he's trying to play victim here is a joke. He was right to be raided. He should be so lucky if he was offered a bribe to avoid the raids and investigation. Fuck this guy.

I hope ND isn't offering this clown anything in return and that this punk Mionis is pulling this stunt on his own. I'd hate to see this piece of garbage get off.

Nevertheless, this tape he made is really good. This is what Syriza didn't have. They came out of the proverbial washroom with only their dicks in their hands: no actual evidence of Novartis giving ND bribes. And they thought they could win the election by playing this game. Idiots! Imagine these clowns if they were still in charge. They'd keep pulling these bullshit shenanigans with the EU, US, Turkey... they would have sunk our country down even further with more bullshit antics. No better example than the debacle that followed the referendum vote. Those fucking jokes. True idiots!

It's good to see Pappas, Tsipras' right-hand man, made to answer about what he meant in suggesting that another Syriza minister had his own agenda and made money through backroom deals. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black. It sure as hell looks bad on all of them. They'll have to give a better explanation than that and the longer it takes for Tsipras to respond, the worse it will look. So far he's not doing a good job here defending himself or his party with claims of an edited recording.

I'd be happy if this proves to be the end of Tsipras and his party of idiots, but that would be too optimistic.