Lagarde list: never ending story with copied and recopied USB memory sticks

I have been trying to make a clue about the infamous Lagarde list and the much too many usb memory sticks that have been copied and recopied again and again the assistants of government officials and “even destroyed”, according to the latest testimony by the former heads of Financial Crimes Units (SDOE) Diotis. All those responsible for the date containing the names of more than 2,000 Greek account holders at HSBC bank in Geneva, appear to have refused to touch the hot potato, how much more to put a hand in the frying pan. 

usb stick cat

What Greece’s two economic prosecutors. Pepponis and Mouzakitis,  are trying to find out is who removed the names of three relatives of former fiance minister George Papaconstantinou. So far the two could not make a clue neither.

Video: lazy cat chasing usb cable

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One after the one those invited to give a testimony declare with one voice: I heard nothing, I saw nothing, I spoke nothing. The common picture they draw is that they had just a short contact with the CD, the usb memory stick – and possible with own memory and duty as a public servant.

The latest testimony on the issue was made by ex SDOE head Yiannis Diotis on Tuesday. He was supposed to appear before the prosecutors today but failed to do so due to a health problem. therefore he submitted a written deposition to Peponis and Mouzakitis, a written testimony monologue, a clever move to avoid questions and englightening dialogue.

Yiannis Diotis wrote to prosecutors on Tuesday that he did make a copy of the so-called Lagarde list onto a memory stick and deleted the contents of the flash drive that was handed to him by former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou in mid-July 2011 in order to “protect the data” from possibly misuse. Diotis denied removing the names of three relatives of Papaconstantinou from the record.

 In his written deposition Diotis admitted that he gave the memory stick to a legal adviser of SDOE and asked her to make a new copy on another flash drive because he felt he did not know enough about computers to handle the task himself. He added that once the information was recopied he had the data deleted from the flash drive given to him by Papaconstantinou. Diotis denied that he tampered with the data at any point in the process.

“I did not want to risk damaging the contents of the USB stick by any possible mishandling,” Diotis wrote in his deposition. The lawyer he claims to have given the memory stick to will be summoned by the prosecutors within the coming day to corroborate his testimony.

Meanwhile, Diotis said that the reason why he deleted the data on the original memory stick was that he “did not want a copy that could come into anyone’s hands lying around before the minister informed me on how to proceed.”

“Had that been the case, then it is obvious that I would have handled it as a regular document and would have had no reason to see it as illegal evidentiary material,” Diotis wrote in his deposition, stressing that he had at no point been told that the material in his possession was the so-called Lagarde list. (full article ekathimerini)

While the cats keep chasing the mice in what it seems a never ending seek-and-hide game, lawmakers argue about how many former and current politicians should be persecuted for inquiry at a voting that will take place in the Parliament on upcoming Thursday.

USB sticks inspired by cat’s ears.