Prosecutor drops Greek central bank chief’s corruption probe

ATHENS, Greece – A Greek prosecutor has dropped an investigation into alleged involvement of the country’s central bank chief in a politically-charged pharmaceutical bribery scandal.

Prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki found Thursday that there were no grounds to investigate Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras.

Stournaras is the seventh of 10 prominent Greek officials or former politicians — including two former prime ministers for whom the alleged pharma graft investigation was also dropped — to have his name cleared.

All have denied wrongdoing and accused Greece’s former left-led government, which had invested much political capital into the investigation, of trying to smear them.

The probe into bribes Swiss drugmaker Novartis allegedly paid to boost the sales and prices of its products in Greece started more than a year ago.