The Herald Sun runs an amusing story today detailing that Socialist Left minister Tony Sheehan cashing in on his association with Greek firm Intralot which won a Victorian government licence to sell scratchie lottery tickets here.
Good to see the Kirner Government's disastrous Treasurer manage his own funds better than he was able to do nearly twenty years ago when large and in charge at 1 Treasury Place.
As the OC contemplates its future finances, we are given great comfort that if the man who nearly bankrupted the state can make a million bucks, surely representing considerable hope for all of us.
SPIES LIKE US
Redemption is certainly a theme at Intralot whose billionaire owner is accused of being a spy for many years for the infamous East German intelligence service Stasi.
Years after the collapse of East Germany, Stasi's records were slowly released. They revealed lots of unpleasant secrets, just one of them being that one of Greece's richest men and Intralot owner Socrates Kokkalis was a long serving spy and traitor. His code name was initially "Rocco" and later "Kaskadeur". Kokkalis had been trained in Moscow and East Berlin.
Multiple criminal charges against Kokkalis for money laundering, fraud and embezzlement were dropped early last year although a respected Greek newspaper reports:
Last year, a Piraeus court rejected a 6.6-million-euro slander suit brought by Kokkalis against Kathimerini over a series of articles on his possible collaboration with the Stasi, saying the reports were fully corroborated.
It's enough to make the greedy Tatts look good.
Game on.
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