Varoufakis Engineers Tax Hack to Create Parallel Payments System
A secret Greek Finance Ministry cell has successfully planned a parallel payments system that enables users to easily switch to Drachma from Euros. The cell could create such a system only after hacking government computers, a fact that has put the political system into turmoil.
Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis informed some investors based in London that a team of five people has been working for the past several months to develop a contingency plan to generate euro liquidity in case emergency funds to Greece were cut off by the European Central Bank. Kathimerini, a newspaper in Greece, had obtained transcripts of this call, which was placed shortly after he resigned as the finance minister of the country.
He said:
The prime minister, before we won the election in January, had given me the green light to come up with a Plan B. And I assembled a very able team, a small team as it had to be because that had to be kept completely under wraps for obvious reasons.
Varoufakis took the help of a Columbia University expert who hacked tax office computers to taxpayer details. This was revealed to a group of pension funds, life, and wealth funds insurances, mostly from Asia, on the occasion of Greek Day, which was observed by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) on July 16.
In a statement to the Telegraph, the former finance minister said that some Greek newspapers have distorted the news, making it appear as if he had been scheming to bring back the drachma right from the beginning. He said:
The context of all this is that they want to present me as a rogue finance minister, and have me indicted for treason. It is all part of an attempt to annul the first five months of this government.
The hacking was done so that the finance ministry could easily make digital transfers. Such a parallel banking system will generate euro liquidity and prevent the “financial strangulation” of Greece. Varoufakis said that the hacking was essential as the finance ministry’s public revenue office was placed in charge of the Troika. He said that he wanted to activate the system as soon as he received the prime minister’s permission, which he never received.
He also informed the Telegraph that the present finance ministry was in favor of a Grexit and is quite aware of the fact that the Greece’s latest bailout was destined to fail.
