Greek "tax cheat" lists yield one suicide, no convictions

Leonidas Tzanis, a Greek provincial lawyer and former government minister, went down to his basement garage in the city of Volos last month, tied a TV cable to a metal beam and hanged himself.
Friends and family say Tzanis died because he was on a list, one of several hinting at financial crimes which are dominating Greek headlines and filling a vacuum created by the state's failure to act decisively on tax evasion and corruption.
Shortly before his suicide, the 57-year-old told a friend he could no longer bear the humiliation of seeing his name on a published list of politicians allegedly under investigation for offences ranging from tax evasion to amassing illegal wealth.
"Half of me died with him," said his brother Mihalis, 67, a retired taxi driver in Volos. "We come from a poor family and he was a self-made man. He was very sensitive and the list really affected him."
The list published by Greek website zougla.gr in late September named 36 politicians, past and present, who it says were being investigated by the financial crimes squad.
It is just one of at least five lists that have driven Greek political gossip and headlines for the past couple of months.
In the middle of a national crisis, and in the absence of effective action against tax cheats and the corrupt, the lists occupy the ground somewhere between libelous rags and public charge sheets. Passed around by email, they are used by activists and journalists alike as a means of pressuring opponents.
In the feverish atmosphere, some believe that good people are being pulled down with the bad.
"The corrupt must be punished but innocent people are being dragged through the mud," said parliamentary deputy Mihalis Karhimakis.
He came to the defense of Tzanis, a fellow socialist. "I don't believe he was implicated but some people are in the business of manufacturing guilty parties. How will they face God?" said Karhimakis, who appeared on the same list.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/01/us-greece-lists-idUSBRE8A01CD20121101