Wall Street Journal
September 20, 2011
Greek entrepreneurs, denied bank credit, sometimes turn to loan sharks.
But their high-interest loans often just worsen the squeeze, and have played a role in at least six suicides in the city of Heraklion on Crete, says its public prosecutor.
Theodoros Karvounakis's Hermes Supermarket in a beach resort outside town went downhill over two years as Greece fell into a deep recession. He couldn't afford to restock. Neighbors say the market, which used to carry everything imaginable, by this year lacked even basics such as sugar.
An extroverted man with a booming voice, Mr. Karvounakis grew depressed, "a shadow of the man he used to be," says his lawyer, Yiannis Tsevabinas.
Desperate for cash, he borrowed about €40,000 (roughly $57,000) from a loan shark. The interest rate started low but rose to 15% a month, according to a note found later by police, swelling the debt to several hundred thousand euros. The lender would wander into the market and help himself to goods without paying, neighbors say.
On July 13, two men visited the store. An elderly neighbor saw them drag Mr. Karvounakis, 50, behind his refrigerators and threaten him loudly unless he paid, she later told police.
"Tomorrow morning I will have a solution," he told the men, according to the witness. The next day at dawn, he hanged himself from a lemon tree in his backyard.
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