In a continuing judicial drama, Filistor Destbasidis, also known as “Maximus Sarafis“From the Novartis case, he reiterated his place in the One -Member Criminal Court, where he is being tried for false deposits. The former executive of the pharmaceutical industry stressed that the information he had provided to corruption prosecutors in 2018 came mainly from the then head of Novartis, Konstantinos Frouzis, as well as his own conclusions about the company’s unfair practices.
Desesbasidis described Novartis as a “corrupt company” that had developed strategic methods of influence, which started by doctors and reached the ministers, with the ultimate goal of dominating the Greek market. He explained that influence and corruption initially concerned doctors and media, through travel and gifts, to persuade to prescribe specific medicines, thereby increasing the market share. The next level, according to him, were state officials who participated in health authorities and could affect the approval and compensation of medicines, and the ministers who signed drug decisions were also targeted. To meet these needs, the company maintained a “invisible fund” that was internally called “Holy Grail”.
The defendant expressed his regret, stating that he worked naively and that “for no reason” would not be a protected witness again, as he was “in the cloths, muddy and derogatory”. He also noted that the knowledge he provided as a witness to public interest was not essentially exploited.
Concerning the political figures involved in the Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office, Desesbasidis reiterated that he “talked about influence, not about bribery” and that he never heard anything about a bribery by Antonis Samaras, Evangelos Venizelou and Yiannis. However, he expressed the view that “something happened” to Andrea Loverdou’s ministry with a particular drug, which was introduced in two weeks instead of the nine months required by the process, which led to large profits for Novartis.
He made a special reference to doctors’ bribes, who were, as he said, easily detectable, as the money went directly to their bank accounts. In fact, he said he had handed over 4,000 doctors to the Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office, but “to date there is no conviction”, and most of them the offenses were limited. He expressed his “alien impression” of the absence of convicts, despite supporting the charges by EOPYY lawyers who certified public damage.
The trial will continue on August 26, with the apology of Maria Marangeli, who had testified as “Catherine Kelesi”.