Novartis file takes aim at former health minister

A section of the case file on the alleged Novartis bribery scandal that prosecutors forwarded to Parliament to request that the immunity of former health minister Andreas Loverdos be lifted includes testimony by protected witnesses who claim that the politician was bribed to inform the company of an imminent haircut on Greek state bonds at the peak of the debt crisis.

Complicating matters, the case file suggested that Loverdos was not health minister at the time that the alleged warning was made.
According to depositions by protected witnesses in the investigation in 2017 and 2018, Loverdos was paid to secretly inform Novartis that Greek government bonds were about to suffer heavy losses in the so-called PSI private debt writedown.
Loverdos allegedly tipped off Konstantinos Frouzis, former vice president and general manager of Novartis Greece, that the company...