Investors bought shares in these banks.
The banks sold shares to raise capital.
So what was the ripoff?
Investors, those buying the shares, are the ones who set the price for the shares.
It also made it mandatory for the country's regulatory body, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, to accept book-building prices, even if they were not properly reflecting share values.
So a law was passed that allowed buyers to set the price, and then required the sellers to sell at that price.
The foreign investors valued the four banks at about $800 million, which is more than three times less than their current market value of $3 billion.
What do you know? The buyers set the value of the banks assets at 27% the market value, crushing the stock prices. Those same buyers then swooped in and bought up controlling shares of the banks. And all perfectly legal because of the laws passed by the Greek Parliament.
That was the ripoff.