ATHENS (Sputnik) – Earlier, the Greek Kathimerini daily published excerpts from a recent teleconference where Ex-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis allegedly disclosed plans, under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ implicit agreement, to create a covert parallel payment system.
Deputy finance chief Mardas weighed in on the revelations in an interview with Greece’s Mega Channel, saying there were never government-level discussions for the so-called plan B.
In a July 16 teleconference between hedge fund leaders and organized by former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, Varoufakis described an elaborate emergency payment system in the event of ECB-driven bank closures.
The plan included setting up secret reserve accounts attached to every tax file number, providing PIN numbers for taxpayers to continue online payments, and hacking into the Finance Ministry’s software to copy the tax system website codes.
The parallel euro payment system, which could be converted to the new drachma "at the drop of a hat," would then be installed onto the General Secretariat of Public Revenues servers.
Varoufakis, who said in the teleconference that Tsipras had given him the green light a month before the ruling Syriza party’s victory in January, took to social media to react to the latest revelations.
So, I was going to "hijack" Greek citizens' tax file numbers? Impressed by my defamers' imagination. http://t.co/NmkhY0RQKO
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) July 26, 2015
Mardas previously told the Greek Skai broadcaster that no plans to create a parallel payment system existed on a government policy level.
