Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis on Tuesday denied that his father-in-law is the subject of the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO) investigation into the Great Sea Interconnector project, which was announced last week.

Television channel Sigma claimed on Tuesday morning that the EPPO’s investigation concerns a company by the name of Gek Terna, which held shares in EuroAsia Interconnector Ltd.

EuroAsia Interconnector Ltd ran the project until October 2023, when it wound itself down and handed control over to Greece’s independent power transmission operator (Admie).

According to the television station, EuroAsia Interconnector Ltd was “promoted by the previous Cypriot government as the contractor for the interconnection project despite not having the necessary financial guarantees”.

Gerapetritis’ father-in-law Michael Gourzis held US$35 million worth of shares in Gek Terna until August 30 this year and remains on the company’s board as its executive vice chairman.

However, Gerapetritis denied any involvement on the part of any of his family, describing the report as “false and misleading”.

“No member of my family has any participation in a company associated with the project,” he said, adding that “absolutely no judicial investigation is being conducted into the issues falsely implied”.

He said the report had been made with “an obvious defamatory purpose”, and that it did not present “a single element which justifies its headline”.

“Of course, the timing of the publication is not accidental, either, due to the latest events which have arisen, although the publication refers to issues which go back years,” he said.

“It is obvious that this particular publication is linked to those who are developing scenarios to ensure that the interconnector project does not go ahead, for their own interests, and to those who are trying to pre-emptively absolve themselves of any responsibilities that the ongoing investigation may reveal.”

He then promised that “all legal remedies will immediately be filed against anyone responsible for the defamatory publications”.

“They will provide answers where they are due, in the courts,” he said.

Last week, newspaper Phileleftheros had reported that a “politically exposed person” and their relatives had used their position to seek and secure, for personal gain, the grant in excess of €650m which the European Commission gave to the project in 2022.

The government said it was only aware of the fact that an investigation had been launched and was not aware of its scope.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said that the government has no information regarding the subject of the investigation, before saying that “the information we have is that there have been some complaints”.

Meanwhile, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said the Greek government has “not received any complaint” from the EPPO regarding the interconnector.