Ex-insurance chief on embezzlement charges

The former president of the Interamerican insurance company, Dimitris Kontominas, has been banned from leaving the country after being charged with forgery and embezzlement in connection with the sale of investment products to Greeks living in South Africa in 2000. Kontominas was released after being questioned by a magistrate in Athens on Friday. An investigation into Kontominas’s activities was launched in 2005 after numerous members of the Greek diaspora alleged in newspaper reports that they had been ripped off by Interamerican. The first prosecutor that looked into the claims, Panayiotis Athanasiou, decided that charges could not be brought. But the probe has now been picked up by another official, Xeni Dimitriou, who has filed criminal charges against Kontominas, who is also required to post 300,000 euros bail.