tagged: fraud, Greece, judges, lawyers, real estate, scam, scandal

Real Estate Scandal: They are among us…

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

Not the aliens! But lawyers, judges, a priest and an unknown number of civil servants forming a gang were more than they seemed to be. The story? As chilling as the film “They are among us”.

At least seven lawyers, six judges,  tax officials, notaries, bank officials and bailiffs,  two policemen, a labor unionist,  a priest, several private persons, 600 files and 200 ‘virtual’ companies are under investigation by the authorities in relation to a real estate scandal targeting the illegal acquisition of properties from their legal owners.

Alleged mastermind of the fraud ring is a 53-years-old engineer, who according to police, set a very “robust construction, and under his guidance dozens of people played their dirty part” since 1997, with huge economical benefits. At the same time hundreds of  properties owners fell in their trap and lost their homes and fortunes.

The gang used to locate possible victims and managed with fake documents to annex illegally unknown number of real estate properties. Various illegal processes and scam-auctions made the gang even richer.

According to first findings the police is considering to raise specific offenses, such as the creation of a criminal organization, money laundering, black-mailing, fraud, forgery and tax evasion on large sums of money.

Authorities have to evaluate dozens of computer hard disks, hunderds of documents, thousands of telephone conversations to get a clear picture of the fraud.

The case goes into unpredictable extension as more and more people seek the authorities and declare themselves as “victims of the gang”, after  the way of scamming and the names of  some gang members became public.