Constantinos Frouzis

Within hours of the owner of an advertising agency telling a Greek corruption prosecutor that he paid an unnamed representative of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis some 400,000 euros, the executive, Filistor Destempasidis, issued a statement rejecting the claims as "monstrous degeneracy" and pledged to take legal action.

The owner of an advertising agency gave his testimony to a corruption prosecutor in Athens as part of the Novartis probe on Wednesday, during which he argued that he had never paid any bribes to politicians accused of allegedly taking bribes from the Swiss pharmaceutical firm in exchange for preferential treatment.