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He is the former economics professor behind an upstart bank that rode the Greek boom to become a publicly listed heavyweight with a loan book of over 35 billion euros. She is his devoted wife, who oversees the bank’s sponsorship of museums and the arts, and advised it on corporate social responsibility.
But property records show the deals linked to Sallas were opaque and raise questions about how cleanly the lines between his family and Piraeus Bank were drawn. They also provide a window into some of the often byzantine money-making schemes that characterized what one Athens real-estate agent calls the “crazy times” – the years between the stock market boom in 1999 and the crash in 2009, a span that included Greece’s entry into the Euro and its hosting of the 2004 Olympics.
Saltmarsh, the bank’s spokesman, said the loan book of all the banks had been examined in the last few months in an independent audit commissioned by the Bank of Greece and carried out by Blackrock, a U.S.-based asset management firm. The size of the banks’ bad loans and the amount of new capital they required, he said, would be “resolved in the most public of ways” when the Bank of Greece publishes capital-raising requirements across the sector sometime in the coming weeks.
A spokesman for Blackrock said they had examined all “Greek domestic debt assets held onshore or in foreign branches”, but they declined to discuss their conclusions. The Bank of Greece, which regulates the country’s banking system, said Blackrock’s terms of reference were confidential. The Bank failed to respond to repeated separate requests to identify what rules of disclosure and conflicts of interest applied to Greek banks, or to questions about the Piraeus property deals.
Greek companies, whether public or private, are not required to publicly register all their shareholders and there is no public register of directorships. But an inspection of the Greek government’s official gazette, where company announcements and financial results are published, showed an extensive network of private interests connected both to Sallas and his family, and to several former senior executives at Piraeus.
In Greece, explained one senior tax official, most property is typically sold with part of the real price left undeclared and paid in cash. “The problem is when you want to sell the property again, if you declare the real price, then you are left with a huge capital gain to declare,” he said.
One solution, he said, was to make use of an individual who, in return for a cut of profits, operated as a so-called “strawman” who could buy on the gray market, paying both the declared price and an extra portion in cash, and then selling on at the real price.

The buyer listed in the sale documents was a Lebanese-born businessman based in London called Philip Moufarrige. Nine days after buying the building, Moufarrige sold it to Piraeus for 2.65 million euros, according to a contract in the land registry. A lawyer involved in the case confirmed to Reuters he had represented Moufarrige in his absence.

Indian property market gets a boost

Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has announced that external commercial borrowings (ECB) will be allowed in low-cost housing segment.
What it means is that there will be an increase in liquidity that will aid in the supply of affordable housing projects across the country.
Mr Jaiswal adds that Indian property remains the hot spot for investment: “The response to this year’s budget has been mixed. There is a positive impact on property with increase in liquidity through availability of ECBs and availability of higher deduction for affordable housing.
The overall cost of properties are likely to go up because of the hike in service tax from 10 to 12 per cent. This could make real estate in bigger cities even less affordable.