Watch: CrediaBank shareholder confirms probe, confident he won’t face trial

Updated at 10.12am

Alexandros Exarchou, a majority owner of CrediaBank, has confirmed he is under investigation by European prosecutors over a delayed railway contract linked to a fatal train crash that killed 57 people.

However, in an exclusive interview with Times of Malta, Exarchou insists no charges have yet been brought against him, saying he is confident the case will not proceed to trial.

Exarchou is one of three shareholders in Thrivest, an investment company that owns 54% of CrediaBank, the bank set to take over from HSBC Malta. Exarchou owns a 20% stake in Thrivest.

The case relates to an oft-delayed contract, known as contract 717, to revamp the Greek railway’s remote traffic control and signalling systems. Originally signed in 2014 with works expected to be completed within two years, the contract dragged on for a decade.

In December 2023, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said it had “charged” 23 individuals, among them Exarchou, with fraud and breach of trust. Further “charges” followed earlier this year.

‘My involvement was peripheral’: Exarchou

Exarchou describes his involvement in the contract as “peripheral”, insisting that he is simply caught in the crossfire of the investigation because he became CEO of construction company Aktor, which was responsible for the project at the time, in 2019.

“I believe that this involvement goes with the position, rather than what I have done,” Exarchou said. “At the time I became CEO, the project was stopped,” he said. “I didn’t receive money and I didn’t claim compensation during the period I was there.”

Upon leaving the role in 2021, he handed over the project’s reins to a different company altogether, the French construction company Alstom, Exarchou said.

Exarchou told Times of Malta that the first accusation he is facing is related to a request he had made for two extensions to the project during his time at the helm of Aktor.

“In both cases, I have documents I can give you, the Greek state requested me to submit an extension,” Exarchou said.

Exarchou's office has since sent Times of Malta legal documents they claim confirm this. Times of Malta has not yet verified this.

It was not at all a secret, neither to the Central Bank of Greece nor to the ECB- Alexandros Exarchou

The second accusation, Exarchou said, is that he submitted a €25 million claim for extensions that took place before he was ever part of the project.

Exarchou said that shortly before he stepped away from the project, the Greek state came back with a counter-offer: waive €22 million of the claim and receive €3 million.

“I resigned before I responded to this, I never actually replied,” Exarchou says. “So I never received the money at all.”

“I feel very confident that I’m not going to be indicted,” Exarchou insisted. “And if I’m indicted, I’m going to be acquitted,” he added.

€500,000 bail

When pressed, Exarchou confirmed that he is under a €500,000 bail decree, but insisted that, under the peculiarities of the Greek justice system, this is not a sign that he has been indicted.

“In Greece, when the public prosecutor believes it is possible for someone to be charged and sent to trial, it calls the person to testify not under oath,” Exarchou said. Ultimately, matters are “at a pre-trial stage and it is not at all certain that I will be facing trial. It is very much possible for the prosecutor to conclude that they should not proceed with charges,” he said.

However, Exarchou hit out at what he described as the “lies” by Greek opposition MP Stefanos Kasselakis, who said he had pushed for the public prosecutor to step down.

“Mr Kasselakis said I sued (public prosecutor) Christina Salappa and asked for her exemption, which is a lie. I have never acted in any way against the authorities investigating.”

Exarchou argued that while HSBC and Maltese regulators may have been unaware of the ongoing investigation, the matter was “known to the European Central Bank and the Bank of Greece,” both of which had already taken a position over the matter.

“My involvement in the case was declared to the ECB immediately on the day I was informed that I was being investigated,” he said. “It was not at all a secret neither to the Central Bank of Greece nor to the ECB”.

Exarchou has also come under fire from some quarters over his relationship with CrediaBank CEO (and former Attica Bank CEO) Eleni Vrettou. The pair got married last year, raising questions about possible conflict of interest within the bank’s leadership structure.

He brushes these concerns away, saying the two first met “while she was already CEO of Attica Bank”, so he had no role in her achieving that position.

As soon as their relationship became personal, long before the pair married, they immediately informed banking authorities and regulators, both in Greece and across Europe, Exarchou said.

“This issue has been exhaustively discussed with both the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of Greece to the extent that our wedding was blessed by (ECB President Christine) Lagarde,” he quipped.

He said the couple also signed a sworn declaration documenting their relationship, allowing Vrettou to take measures to avoid a conflict of interest.

In practice, “she does not participate in any board meeting that relates, either directly or indirectly, to myself, Thrivest or Aktor. She abstains,” Exarchou said.

Exarchou stops short of describing the reports about him as a smear campaign, but has a bone to pick with the claims.

“I believe that the way both questions – the one related to contract 717 and the one related to my wife – were raised is with an intention which is different than that to obtain answers,” Exarchou said.

“It was a means to inform the Maltese market and authorities about something that they would have been informed of as the transaction proceeds.”