Bribery

Corruption prosecutors in charge of the alleged bribery scandal involving Novartis have added money laundering in their charges against a former protected witness, who is also being investigated for passive bribery.

Following a new turn in the investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss drugmaker Novartis, which has fuelled debate about the procedures being followed by the Greek judiciary, police on Thursday raided the home of a former protected witness in the probe. 

In a new major twist to the ongoing investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving Novartis, a former protected witness suggested that the charges of accepting bribes that have now been brought against him are politically motivated, casting aspersions on the procedures being followed by the judiciary.

One of the three protected witnesses in a kickbacks investigation involving Swiss pharma giant Novartis was slapped with a travel ban and had his passport confiscated after reportedly trying to flee the country with his family on Monday night, Greek media said, citing judicial sources.

An employee of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) has been detained for a bribe demand of BGN 45,000. This was announced by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office Emilia Rusinova at a special briefing on the case, reports Mediapool. 

A new case file investigating charges against former Socialist defense minister Yiannos Papantoniou of repeated passive bribery was sent to Parliament on Monday afternoon, as part of the probe into alleged kickbacks related to the C4I security system Greece acquired for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Swiss-French banker Jean-Claude Oswald, who is facing charges of money laundering and bribery in connection to an arms procurement program, went missing on Tuesday after removing his monitoring bracelet, Greece's Justice Ministry said.

Oswald, who appeared in an Athens court earlier in the day where his case was being heard, destroyed the device's strap and disappeared, it said.

The Senate President, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, indirectly received, 2007 to 2008, when he was prime minister, material benefits worth US about 800,000 dollars from an Austrian company, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) shows in a reply sent to AGERPRES.

Berlin, 12 September 2018 - Most of the world's biggest exporters are failing to punish corporations paying bribes overseas, Transparency International revealed today. 

The anti-corruption organisation has released the 2018 edition of its Exporting Corruption report, rating countries based on their enforcement against foreign bribery under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International put Bulgaria among the countries in which there is “little or no enforcement” deterring foreign companies from paying bribes.