Greek prime minister's mother sues over claims son held millions in off-shore account

The mother of former Greek prime minister George Papandreou has sued financial investigators and three newspapers over claims she held a 550-million-dollar Swiss bank account, a judicial source said Wednesday.

Margaret Chadd, 90, accuses the weekly edition of To Vima and scandal-prone Proto Thema and Dimokratia of falsely claiming she held the account, linking her to the so-called Lagarde list scandal.

In their report, the newspapers quoted three officials from Greece's financial crimes unit as saying they understood her name was included in the controversial list of more than 2,000 Greek holders of Swiss bank accounts, currently under investigation for tax evasion.

The list is named after former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, current head of the International Monetary Fund, who first gave the data to Greek authorities in 2010.

The three newspapers published the American-born Chadd's alleged inclusion on the list late last year and the news was largely picked up by international media.

According to the same judicial source, Chadd accuses the publishers and officials of not denying her involvement, despite having apparently said elsewhere there is no evidence against her.

The accused officials include head Stelios Stassinopoulos, who is close to conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Chadd, the former wife of Andreas Papandreou -- first leader of Greece's socialist party Pasok -- is seeking 200,000 euros ($264.323) in damages from each of the accused as well as six months of imprisonment for each of the three publishers.