Greece's Varoufakis defends covert plan to hack tax codes
The start of new bailout talks between the Greek government and its international creditors has been overshadowed by revelations that Greece's maverick ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was secretly planning for a parallel system of liquidity.
The European Commission confirmed on Monday that technical talks on Greece's third bailout had started in Athens, where the embattled leftist government has been forced to implement a further slew of austerity measures in return for much-needed bailout cash.
But the return of the reviled “troika” of creditors – EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – was eclipsed by news Varoufakis had "hacked" into his own ministry weeks earlier to create duplicate files for millions of Greek taxpayers.
In a telephone conversation with a group of London-based investors after he resigned his post on July 6, Varoufakis claimed that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had "given the green light" for a Plan B before coming to power in January, according to a recording released Monday.
The goal, he said, was to create a "functioning parallel system" of liquidity in case the European Central Bank cut off support to Greece's banks – as indeed it did after talks with the Greek government on new austerity reforms broke down in June.
