Yes Brussels, We Have a Plan B

“The banking system would be defined in euros. But overnight could be switched to a new drachma.”

BY KYLE ANDREW BROWN

WASHINGTON, July 27 – The Daily Telegraph has published confirmation of Yanis Veroufakis confidential conference call with foreign investors and hedge fund managers ten days after he left the Finance Ministry.

Revelations of the Yanis conference call and the existence of a Plan B were published Sunday in Kathimerin : ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ.

The former Finance Minister confirms the much speculated Plan B does indeed exist – and it sure is intriguing.

Plan B is intriguing on three counts.

Take your pick:

ONE: The capability to restate euro transactions as drachmas in a parallel banking system using software replacing api code on electronic devices.  

TWO: The development and deployment of hidden software code on Finance Ministry computer systems to circumvent Germany and Brussel’s exclusive control of the Greece Finance Ministry’s revenue operations.

Three: The decisions Alexis Tsipras made in negotiations with Angela Merkel and the Creditors knowing that he had an operational parallel banking system at the ready should Germany pull the Grexit dagger.

§  §  §

Financial Sovereignty 

The Plan B revelation brings even more intrigue to speculation surrounding Yanis abrupt departure as it is swirled into the speculation of his resignation.

To this day it is not known whether Yanis resigned, was fired or  forced out of Treasury by Angela Merkel as a condition of continued negotiations.

The explosive Plan B revelations are made by Yanis Varoufakis in a conference call to investors and executives of international hedge funds. 

A transcript of a portion of the conference call was published Sunday in Kathimerin : ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ.

In on the conference call was former British Exchequer Norman Lamont and former Prime Minister John Major. The call’s July 16 date coincides with the Soviet International Economic Forum held in Saint Petersburg.

Yanis told the investors that he began planning ahead for a possible Grexit in December 2014, one month before SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras won election.

Yanis says then candidate Tsipras ordered him to develop a parallel banking and payment system in case capital controls were put in place and transfer to the drachma occurred.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS: “We decided to hack into the ministry’s software program so that we could duplicate the website code onto a large computer in the office (my friend’s) so he would to be able to design and implement a parallel payment system.” 

A group of five worked in secret inside the Public Revenue Department of Katerina Saavaidis.

Yanis Veroukasis confirmed the conference call occurred in an interview with the Daily Telegraph‘s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Ambrose appears to be the journo Veroukasis put up in his apartment for two days of interviews to be published in nine parts.

§  §  §

Loss of Sovereignty  

Veroufakis confirmed to the Daily Telegraph‘s Ambrose that he did indeed set up a clandestine unit within the Finance Ministry to override the financial system controlled by the Troika: IMF, EU and Creditors

Plan B makes use of the Public Revenue deparatment’s system of collecting VAT and other sources of revenue.  Each account holder has a unique pin number to gain account access.

Yanis Veroufakis hired an Information Technology professor from Columbia University in New York shortly before taking office. One week or so after his appointment as Finance Minister, the professor called Yanis.

Veroufakis: “He called and told me that he is in control of the hardware. But not the software.” 

Professor: “The software belongs to the Troika, which controls the Secretary of Public Revenue. What should I do?”

It is not widely known that Brussels and the Troika had effective operational control of the Greece Government’s revenue system.

This understanding reveals the loss of Greece sovereignty to the European Central Bank and Germany.

Recall that during Germany’s reconstruction after the collapse of the Third Reich the Allies did not take operational control of West Germany’s Ministry of Finance.

§  §  §

How It Works

Veroufakis explained to Ambrose at the Daily Telegraph:

Veroufakis:  “The goal of the computer hacking was to enable the Finance Ministry to make digital transfers at “the touch of a button.” The payments would be IOUs based on an experiment by the State of California after the Lehman Brothers financial crises.” 

The way it works is a parallel banking system of this kind would allow the government to create euro liquidity and circumvent financial strangulation by the European Central Bank.

Veroufakis:  “This would create a parallel banking system. Giving us a little air to breathe, while the banks would be closed. This project developed very well and would be effective. Because very quickly we could enlarge the program to include smartphone apps and api.  This would become a parallel operational banking system. The banking system would be defined in euros. But overnight could be switched to a new drachma.”

§  §  §

In His Own Words

“There is the website of the Tax Office, as in Britain and elsewhere, where citizens, taxpayers enter the Site using their PIN to transfer via web banking money from their accounts in their AFM to pay VAT, income tax etc.”

“We planned to create secret accounts, connected to each PIN   without telling anyone that we have this system in operation under utmost secrecy. Pressing a button will allow us to distribute funds to each pin holder i.e., each taxpayer.

“Take, for example, the case where the state owes a Euros to a pharmaceutical company for the purchase of drugs on behalf of the National Health System.

“We could immediately create a digital transfer to this business VAT account and provide them with a pin so they can use it as a parallel mechanism of payment to anyone else, while also be made tax payments to the state.

“This would create a parallel banking system, giving us a little air to breathe. While banks would be closed because of the European Central Banks strong arm policy.”

Related reading:

• Rather not be here in Athens
• SYRIZA social principle