Former Prime Minister George Papandreou threatened legal action on Tuesday against anyone reproducing an extract from a soon-to-be published book by Herve Falciani, the former HSBC employee who leaked the details of thousands of depositors to authorities, including the Greeks included on the so-called Lagarde list.

In his book, extracts of which appeared in the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Italy, Falciani claims that Papandreou was blackmailed into signing Greece’s bailout so details of a 500-billion-euro account allegedly held by his mother in Switzerland would not be revealed.

Papandreou responded by issuing a statement saying that Falciani’s claims are “contrary to the truth.”

He also pointed out that the claim about his mother possessing a large bank account abroad has been made before and that the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) has confirmed in writing that this is not the case.