An appellate level judicial council on Thursday has reportedly approved the release of assets belonging to troubled Folli Follie, an Athens-based jewelry and accessory maker at the center of ongoing five-year legal case, where the its former top executives face criminal charges.
The purported decision, by a majority decision of two to one, opens the way for the completion of a rescue agreement with the formerly listed company’s bond holders.
According to reports, the ruling was made known on the sidelines of a trial before a three-justice appellate court.
The assets in question include the modernist FF headquarters in the north Athens suburb of Aghios Stefanos, other office space and stores, valued at 28 million euros.
Bank accounts with some three million euros are also separated.
The first court injunction freezing FF assets was issued in 2018, in the wake of serious charges of financial mismanagement and false statements to market authorities, namely, greatly inflated profits and turnover, as well as “phantom” operations in east Asia.
Among the defendants in the trial are FF founder and former CEO Dimitris Koutsolioutsos and his son and successor, Tzortzis, as well as 11 other former executives and board members.
An investigation in 2018 by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), the watchdog in Greece, found that the company had overstated its 2016 revenues by 1.2 billion euros and made misleading statements to the market. The results of the probe generated a fine of 4.4 billion euros against the company in 2019.
In February 2021, an Athens criminal court indicted the defendants on charges of fraud, money laundering and participation in a criminal ring.
All of the defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
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