The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has withdrawn arrest warrants for Konstantinos Papadimitrakopoulos and Dimitris Gryparis, respectively the former chief executive and chief financial officer of Globo plc.
In February 2019, the FCA obtained domestic and European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) for both Mr Papadimitrakopoulos and Mr Gryparis and sought to extradite them from Greece to face criminal charges of fraud and making misleading statements about the value of Globo’s shares prior to its collapse in November 2015.
The Hellenic Court of Appeal denied the UK’s extradition requests for Mr Papadimitrakopoulos and Mr Gryparis. Having refused extradition, the Greek authorities instigated their own criminal proceedings, which were substantially similar to the offences which the FCA were prosecuting.
Mr Papadimitrakopoulos and Mr Gryparis were acquitted in those proceedings, respectively, in May and November 2021. The FCA has only recently been able to confirm details of their acquittals in Greece.
In January 2024, following FCA’s latest review of the prosecution, having considered all of the relevant factors, including the available admissible evidence and the effect on its prosecution of the acquittals of Mr Papadimitrakopoulos and Mr Gryparis in the domestic Greek prosecutions the FCA has determined that it is no longer in the public interest for the prosecution to continue. The withdrawal of the warrants and EAWs ends the prosecution.
