Greek police find no sign of Varoufakis tax hacking

Police in Greece have found no sign of electronic hacking into the tax files of millions of Greeks, which ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis claimed to have ordered as part of an emergency plan to deal with an exit from the euro, state agency ANA reported Saturday.

A police source told the agency that specialist officers had analysed four finance ministry hard disks, and found no signs of tampering with the taxpayer registry database.

A parallel investigation is currently underway among finance ministry staff.

Flamboyant ex-minister Varoufakis in July told a meeting of hedge fund investors that he had been planning a parallel system of liquidity that could have been converted to a "new" drachma "at the drop of a hat".

He added that on his orders, a small team had "hacked" into the tax registry to create duplicate tax codes for millions of Greeks, in preparation for the plan.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras later defended Varoufakis, telling parliament that he had authorised him to prepare a "defence plan" in case Greece was forced to leave the euro.

But Tsipras insisted that his administration "did not have, and never prepared, plans to take the country out of the euro."

Greece's creditors had warned  that the country could be thrown out of the euro when reform talks broke down at the end of June.

Tsipras eventually defused the crisis by accepting a third bailout for Greece accompanied by fresh austerity measures.