Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis announced on Tuesday the first results of the preliminary investigation on the OPEKEPE scandal where hundreds of Greeks declared false and fake plots and livestock numbers in order to receive agricultural funds from the European Union.
According to the minister, the investigation conducted by the Economic Crime Prosecution Service of the Organized Crime Directorate of the Hellenic Police have found out that 1,036 applications -based on taxpayers numbers – are suspected of having received illegal funds totaling 22,667,522 euros.
The number of total applications investigated was 6,354.
All investigation results have been forwarded to the public prosecutor, opening the way for seizing the assets of applicants for unduly paid benefits, the minister added.
OPEKEPE illegal subsidies MAP: Crete leads
A map with the distribution of tax numbers (AFM) illegal beneficiaries per Region has been also made public.
To date, the following data have emerged:
- number of applications (tax numbers) investigated: 6,354
- illegal funds 1,036 tax numbers
- total amounts of fund received illegally: €22,667,522.17
850 cases out of 1,036 concern the Region of Crete, with the perpetrators collecting a total of 17.2 million euros.
Other regions:
- Attica: 46 cases were found (761,250.80 euros)
- Central Macedonia: 53 cases (996,419.83 euros)
- Thessaly: 20 cases (989,278.52 euros)
- Western Greece: 16 cases (382,544.81 euros)
- Eastern Macedonia & Thrace: 8 cases (274,678.66 euros)
- Peloponnese: 5 cases (64,108.36 euros)
- Central Greece: 22 cases (341,217.46 euros)
- South Aegean: one case (12,941.07 euros)
- Epirus: 4 cases (228,353.99 euros)
- Western Macedonia: 7 cases (1,314,115.08 euros)
- Ionian Islands Region: 2 cases (40,950.39 euros)
- North Aegean Region: 2 cases (37,173.35 euros).
What’s Next? Charges & Consequences
Now it is up to public prosecutor to order the conduct of a preliminary examination, in order to collect the necessary evidence to determine whether criminal prosecution should be initiated for the following acts:
criminal organization/conspiracy/gang,
common and distinct fraud related to subsidies, once and continuously,
common and distinct forgery by unit and by complicity, once and continuously,
moral instigation / collaboration in the above acts by unit and by complicity, consecutively, once and continuously.
In his presser, Minister Chrysochoidis said in addition that the transmission of investigative reports to the Prosecutor’s Office, to date, has resulted in the seizure of the property rights of the applicants for unduly paid subsidies.
Note, however, that “seizure of property rights” does not mean that the owners have lost their assets, a court decision is necessary. A trial could take some 6 to 7 years.
During the investigation, digital data concerning 819,620 applications of single beneficiaries were extracted for the period from 2019 to 2024.
Fraud methods
The investigation of cases to date where fraud was found in the receipt of financial subsidies has highlighted the following methods:
Falsification of the legal ownership of the declared agricultural plots by the applicants.
False declaration of ownership of agricultural plots of deceased owners following inheritance rights or in the absence thereof.
False declaration of ownership of livestock.
Submission of single applications by beneficiaries without complete selection criteria.
Or false declaration of agricultural plots of land used by beneficiaries outside their place of residence or professional activity.
The Prosecutor’s order is being carried out continuously and for this purpose a special police team will be created by the Organized Crime Countermeasures Directorate, which will undertake the continuation of the investigation, with the following objectives:
Continuously updating the criteria for identifying applications of sole beneficiaries (Tax Identification Number).
Examination of the activity of criminal groups, which acted in an organized manner to obtain relevant subsidies.
The identification, again, of methods developed to defraud the subsidy provision mechanism.
So far, the Greek investigation has identified the tax numbers of the false beneficiaries.
EU prosecutor investigation ongoing
Question is whether the middlemen or political personnel will ever be discovered.
For this Greeks lay their trust to the European Public Prosecutor.
Yesterday Monday, newspaper tovima.gr reported that 10 lawmakers are involved in the OPEKEPE scandal and that the EU Prosecutor’s office is sending a new case file to Parliament with the request of lifting the MP’s immunity on charges charges for fraud related to illegal subsidies.
Due to OPEKEPE scandal that “officially” broke out in early summer, already two -now former- New Democracy ministers had to resigned when their names were mentioned to EU prosecutor office first case file.
