ATHENS – Supreme Court prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou on Monday ordered a preliminary inquiry into allegations of exorbitant private funding to political parties, apropos of media reports quoting from the deposition of former PASOK official Thodoris Tsoukatos on a case of bribery.

The prosecutor ordered financial affairs prosecutor Marianna Psaroudaki to determine liability in Tsoukatos’ claims, and asked her to relate her preliminary inquiry to the ongoing case on loans made to parties.

According to Tsoukatos’ claims, PASOK alone received “private funding” in the 2000 electoral campaign period amounting to 16 million drachmas, or the equivalent of 4.69 million euros in today’s terms. Tsoukatos asserted that one of his greatest mistakes was not fighting private funding of parties by businesses, as he should have done, a practice he said has long been established and continues today.