Daily Mail
October 19, 2011
Fat-cat Greeks have secretly shifted more than £200billion of euros out of their country’s crisis-hit banks and into accounts in Switzerland, according to a report.
The big money is fleeing the country as rich Greeks fear the possible re-introduction of their old currency, the drachma, would instantly halve the value of their euros if they are left in Greek banks.
Most of the money is being transferred via Cyprus by Greek industrialists using their foreign subsidiaries to channel it out of the debt-ridden country, where tens of thousands of workers launched a general strike yesterday.
Markus Korll, from the German financial services group Roland Berger, told Bild: ‘During the past few months alone more than 10billion euros has been moved abroad.’
Greek newspapers have also reported that people flying abroad – including nuns, priests and the unemployed – are being stopped at Athens airport with suitcases full of euros.
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