Court convicts former Greek finance minister over failure to declare money in Swiss account

A Greek former finance and defense minister has been convicted of failing to declare 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million) that his wife had placed in a Swizz bank account.

An Athens court on Tuesday sentenced Yannos Papantoniou and his wife Stavroula Kourakou to four years each in prison and ordered them to pay fines of 10,000 euros respectively. The prison sentence will be suspended pending the couple's appeal.

The court said Papantoniou, a Socialist, should have listed the sum in his 2010 annual wealth declaration.

The 65-year-old served as minister of finance and national economy between 1996 and 2001, and held the defense portfolio from 2001-2004.

He has said the money had already been declared under other bank accounts, before they were moved to the Swiss account.