An unbelievable scam with loot exceeding one million euros was allegedly set up in Thessaloniki by a 68-year-old priest together with another 61-year-old who had previously been deposed as a priest.

The two accused, between November 2018 and 24 February 2023, appear to have approached their unsuspecting victims and managed to convince them that the 68-year-old priest would soon be promoted to the Church and that they could benefit, thus managing to extort money from them.

In order to make themselves more believable, they showed their victims fake letters drawn up by the priest, where religious organisations and government agencies appeared to be the senders – authors, and extracted sums of money from six nationals.

According to information, the defendants claimed, among other things, that the priest could become the next Metropolitan of Thessaloniki and then their victims would benefit, such as the management of religious countries, etc.

The fake letters seem to have been made by the 61-year-old and in turn delivered to the priest.

The investigation by police officers of the Department of Criminal Organizations and International Affairs of the Sub-Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Human Trafficking of the Thessaloniki Security Directorate led to the dismantling of the criminal organization, the members of which are involved, on occasion, in fraud, forgery and money laundering from criminal activities repeatedly and professionally.

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The collection, evaluation and exploitation of data in the context of investigating complaints about cases of defrauding citizens with total financial losses exceeding 1,340,000 euros, according to statements by victims, resulted in the identification of the perpetrators.

These are native Greek men aged 61, 68, 51 and 34 years old, against whom a case file was formed.

The investigation also revealed that the money was transferred to the accounts of the 61-year-old man, while the transfer of funds to other persons, including the identified nationals aged 51 and 34, was also established.

They were seized:

– A luxury vehicle,

– 2 laptop computers,

– Printer,

– 2 portable storage devices (usb),

– Various bank deposit books,

– Handwritten notes,

– Various letters and

– 2 mobile phones.

The case file was submitted to the Prosecutor of Thessaloniki, while the digital evidence will be examined by the competent Department of the Sub-Directorate of Criminal Investigations of Northern Greece.