The key documents of the case, each with its facsimile. A selection from an archive of 1,186 items; the full register is published in the books.
Government Gazette
Approval of the constitution and statute (deed 122747 of 6 December 1904, notary Ilias Glykofrydis). Capital 10,000,000 francs in 80,000 bearer shares of 125 gold francs each.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
French Embassy to the Sublime Porte; French Ministry of Finance archives
Describes the new bank: founded on the initiative of the National Bank of Greece with German capital (Nationalbank für Deutschland), seat in Athens, capital of 10 million francs fully paid, chaired by Baron Streit, with agencies at Constantinople, Salonica, Alexandria, Cairo and Hamburg and a branch being opened at Smyrna.
Case archive (Open at full size)
Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris; Government Gazette
Letter of the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris of 15 June 1910 and papers of the bank's representative at the Paris Bourse; amendment of article 6 of the statute (Gazette 267/1910).
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Banque d'Orient; printed by Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig and Berlin
The title on which the action was brought. Bilingual, with its dividend sheet and coupons 50 to 60. Coupon 55 carries no stamp for the 150 + 50 drachma advance.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Government Gazette
The law under which the merger took place. The archive also holds its draft, from G. Anagnostopoulos' handbook of 1937.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Athens notary I. Oikonomopoulos; approval of the Minister of National Economy 72186/1932
The contract as published. Term III: inventory and delivery of assets and liabilities. Term IV: special liquidation conducted by NBG as mandatary. Term VI: an interest-bearing running account, "Banque d'Orient, Liquidation Account", at 7 %, kept in drachmas, gold francs, sterling, Egyptian pounds and dollars, with half-yearly published statements. Term VII: closing of the account at the end of the liquidation. Term VIII: distribution of the balance to the holders of the 280,000 shares, at one 280,000th per share.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Athens Stock Exchange; Oikonomikos Tachydromos
The exchange notice of 15 February 1933 and the Oikonomikos Tachydromos issue of 19 February 1933 announcing the merger by acquisition.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece, legal department
The 150 drachmas per share are "a price aimed at returning part of the share capital on account of the bank's dissolution", the 50 drachmas the price of the clientele; the thirty-year prescription applies to the advances.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece; copy certified by NBG's Historical Archive
The 7th book of the account "Banque d'Orient, Liquidation Account", 73 pages, each certified by two NBG employees. Entries in drachmas, gold francs, Egyptian pounds, sterling and dollars up to August 1938; fees to the three special liquidators in 1937 and 1938. It contains no credit for the value of the building at 6 Sofokleous Street.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece; Eleftheron Vima
The statement as published in Eleftheron Vima, and the version produced by NBG in court bearing the bank's seal and a signature attributed to Governor Ioannis Drosopoulos. It is the only signed liquidation statement in the file and the subject of the forensic report D49.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Special liquidators of the Banque d'Orient
Handwritten minutes of a session of liquidators Agapitos, Kouris and Kouklelis, at which NBG management's representative announces the decision to stop the liquidation work and dismiss its staff from 28 December 1936.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Special liquidators of the Banque d'Orient
The minutes record pending lawsuits, uncollected claims and real property. They contain no final account, no distribution balance sheet and no finding that the work was complete.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece; Bibliothèque nationale de France
A statement headed "Statement of the liquidation accounts of the Banque d'Orient at 28 December 1936", drawn up on 29 December 1936, unsigned, with a narrow strip at its foot headed "Final statement". NBG says it was published in La Bourse Égyptienne in October 1937; the Bibliothèque nationale de France replied that it could not certify the authenticity of that issue.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Westminster Bank Ltd, Foreign Branch Office; National Bank of Greece
Westminster Bank asks whether a first payment of 200 drachmas was made in 1933, whether any later payment was made, and for a copy of the liquidation accounts and the liquidators' report; NBG's reply of 4 April 1939 and a reminder of 8 May 1939.
Case archive (Open at full size)
Kingdom of Greece, Ministry of Finance, General Directorate of Public Accounts
The Ministry asks to be informed of "the manner fixed for the return of the capital of the above bank, that is whether the whole amount of each share is returned at once, or in instalments, or part of it at once and which part".
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Court of Audit; Council of State (plenary)
NBG challenged Court of Audit decision 636/1939 before the Council of State, appearing expressly as liquidator of the Banque d'Orient in liquidation. The plenary Council of State dismissed the petition on 8 April 1940. The State's debt to the Banque d'Orient, 1,482,042 drachmas, stood.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece
NBG management's printed report to its own shareholders refers to the continuation and outstanding business of the Banque d'Orient liquidation.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Crédit Lyonnais, Marseille branch
The bank certifies that it holds for a client Banque d'Orient shares of 125 gold francs, with coupons from no. 54 onward.
Case-file exhibit (Open at full size)
French Republic; Greek Ministry of Commerce; Paris Bourse
The French 1951 rules expressly list Banque d'Orient shares; the Ministry of Commerce forwards Banque d'Orient shares to NBG in 1951 and 1953; certificates in the archive bear Paris stamps (June 1951, May 1954) and the stamp of the Greek Consulate General in Paris.
Case-file exhibit (Open at full size)
French Republic, Ministry of Finance; notary Albert Scheubert, Saudrupt (Meuse)
The French Treasury collected inheritance tax on seven shares of 125 gold francs numbered 133,733 to 133,737, 134,534 and 134,535, twenty years after 1936. Those seven certificates are today in NBG's Historical Archive, which certified the copy.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Banque Nationale de Grèce S.A., Agences en Égypte, en liquidation
To NBG's general management in Athens: an officer posted to Cairo to scale down the liquidation work and transfer files, among them the files of the still pending lawsuits of the liquidation of the Banque d'Orient's Egyptian branches.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece, Historical Archive
On handing over documents to the shareholders, NBG's Historical Archive certifies that it holds files of the Banque d'Orient liquidation at least up to 1966; it provides nothing for later years.
Case-file exhibit (Open at full size)
Legal Council of the State, Section A; accepted by the Minister of Economy on 20 February 2008
On a question from the Ministry of Development about a pre-war banking company dissolved in 1929: a company in liquidation keeps its legal personality, however many decades have passed and whether or not it appears in the modern companies registry, until realisation, rendering of accounts and distribution to shareholders.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Athens Court of First Instance, single judge
Recognises the legal interest of Banque d'Orient shareholders and orders NBG to produce documents.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Ministry of Development, Directorate of Sociétés Anonymes
No document, balance sheet or decision on completion of the merger and liquidation of the Banque d'Orient has been filed or published in the companies registry.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
National Bank of Greece, Board Secretariat
To the request of 20 February 2014 for a full copy of the merger contract and the accompanying documents, NBG replies on 2 March 2014 that the contract is not located in its archive.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)
Emily J. Will, certified forensic document examiner, Raleigh, North Carolina
Comparison of the signature attributed to Governor Ioannis Drosopoulos on the 30 June 1936 statement with genuine signatures of his on letters of 1912 to 1931. The report's conclusion: the signature is not his. Filed in court with a certified translation; no court has examined it.
Filed with the action (Open at full size)