LAOS leader found guilty over wealth declaration

The leader of the small ultranationalist LAOS party, Giorgos Karatzaferis, was given a suspended jail sentence on Monday for failing to declare all his assets on his derivation of wealth forms (“pothen esches”).

Karatzaferis received the 12-month term, suspended for three years, after failing to declare millions of euros in a trust fund, which the LAOS leader said was built up through his salary as an MEP and 1.65 million euros he was given in return for shares in the TV station he founded, called Telecity.

The right-wing politician told the Athens court he was “deeply saddened” by the failure to declare the money, an oversight that he blamed on his accountant and others who had “betrayed” him.