Politics

ATHENS – The protected status of two alleged whistleblowers who claimed bribes were paid to government officials by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis – which wasn’t proved – has been lifted by Greece’s Financial Prosecutor’s office.

The witnesses, whose names haven’t been revealed under laws protecting whistleblowers, offered only hearsay to back up their assertions of bribery, made against public figures and New Democracy lawmakers and politicians.

The then-ruling Radical Left SYRIZA under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the case was the biggest scandal in modern Greek history but no evidence was ever produced and cases were dropped.

Lifting the witness protection means that the targets, which included former premier Antonis Samaras, former health minister Adonis Georgiadis, former minister Andreas Loverdos and Bank of Greece Governor Yiannis Stournaras can take legal action against them.

The four had appealed against the secrecy given to their accusers who said that doctors and public officials had taken kickbacks from Novartis from 2006-15 in a case that dragged on for years without solid evidence.

The alleged whistleblowers reportedly got rich over their claims, the newspaper Proto Thema in July reporting that they were paid 26 million euros ($28.15 million) and their lawyers 30 million euros ($32.47 million.)

That was from a United States settlement with Novartis, which was fined $345 million in penalties under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for...

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