Greece: Strike call as pension fund crisis broadens

A political crisis that arose when it was alleged that the civil servants’ auxiliary pension fund (TEADY) had paid €75 million for a bond worth €70 million has escalated during April 2007, as it has emerged that the bond was also purchased by other pension funds: the social insurance (TEAYFE) and pharmaceutical (TSEYP) workers’ auxiliary pension funds as well as the newsagents’ pension fund.

Similar alleged investment malpractices are being investigated by the money laundering committee at a further 23 funds, where it is suspected that a number of companies have profited from being part of a long chain of firms that have traded in the bond.