Endless stories about poverty stricken Greeks living in squalor are all the rage. And doubtless many of them are true.

But there is another side to these hard-luck stories. Allegedly poor Greeks have been depositing massive sums of money into overseas accounts. The most glaring case, according to a report in Athens newspaper Ta Nea is of a man who advised the Inland Revenue he had zero income yet managed to deposit EUR25 million abroad.

The Greek daily published a copy of the list of alleged offenders, held by the Bank of Greece, authenticated by the Ministry of Finance. In 2010 alone, 731 Greeks transferred nearly one billion euros to other countries.

And yet, according to their tax return, 403 of them were poverty-stricken.