Prosecutors have put under the microscope the $500 million scandal over the upgrade of five naval cooperation aircraft P-3B Orion of the Navy, starring ANEL’s president and then Minister of National Defense (2015- 2019) Panos Kammenos. The prosecution is investigating the possible commission of three felonies, including the offence of money laundering (money laundering).

Prosecutors are being asked to investigate the $500 million scandal over the Navy’s five P-3B aircraft upgrade by direct award, which should have been completed years ago, but still, as of this writing, remains a blank slate.

Panos Kammenos, 59, who served as the Greek Defense Minister from January 27, 2015 to January 14, 2019, had shown a keen interest in upgrading the obsolete P-3B Orion at the beginning of his tenure in the cabinet in 2015. And he had shown interest at a time when the country’s economy was reeling under the suffocating pressures of memorandum obligations and the state coffers were empty. He was the man who had passionately and fervently proposed and supported the immediate upgrade of the P-3B aircraft.

The lawsuit

The prosecutor’s investigation was prompted by retired naval officer Panagiotis Stamatis, who filed a lawsuit with Supreme Court prosecutor Georgia Adilini over the unrealized nine-year contract between the Ministry of Defense and the company Lockheed Martin for the modernization and upgrade of five P-3B aircraft of the Navy in the amount of $499,843,145.

The lawsuit is brought against all participants and participants, with joint action and common malice, responsible officials and extra-agency co-conspirators or instigators, and against any other person against whom there is prima facie evidence of guilt for the felony offenses of (a) dishonesty, (b) bribery of public officials, and (c) money laundering.

Primarily, the arrows of the lawsuit are “directed” at Mr. Kammenos and de facto and against those who participated in the crucial meeting of the KYSEA at which the intergovernmental Letter of Acceptance (LOA) agreement for the modernization of the aircraft by Lockheed was received and finalized.

In this controversial meeting of the KISEA, in addition to Mr. Kammenos, the former president of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras, former Vice Admiral, MP, but also former Minister of National Defence in the second SYRIZA government Evangelos Apostolakis as the most responsible, since these planes are in the Navy and he was A/GEN and former General of the Armed Forces General Michael Kostarakos.

Of course, the file will make its way to the Parliament because of the alleged involvement of Mr Tsipras and Apostolakis, while as for the non-political persons, it will be separated and investigated by the prosecution.

Today the aircraft are decommissioned at the Hellenic Aircraft Industry (HIA) facilities in Tanagra and at the Elefsina air base, with no one knowing what fate they will have.

The contract to upgrade the aircraft was signed in March 2015, when almost all of the state’s cash reserves had been exhausted during the country’s governance by the SYRIZA-ANEL partnership during the memorandum period. At the time, Kammenos insistently argued that the P-3B modernization program is necessary and essential for the country’s national defense, but also economically beneficial compared to other solutions.

Thus, at the March 15, 2015, meeting of the GSC approved the draft interstate agreement (LOA) for the modernization of the disputed obsolete 49-year-old aircraft. Indicative of the prevailing spirit at the critical moment in the MoD at the time in question was the assessment that the P-3B aircraft “are currently (in 2015) 25 years old”, ignoring or completely accidentally concealing the fact that they had 49 years on their backs at the time.

However, in record time for Greek standards and with fast-track procedures, i.e. before 20 days from the approval of the KYSEA, the MoD rushed to activate the contract by paying an advance of $45 million to the contractor.

Lockheed undertook the obligation to complete the upgrade by 2020, which has so far not been implemented, despite the fact that the last installment was paid on September 15, 2020, says the member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Retired Naval Officers Mr. Stamatis.

Proto Thema had highlighted the scandal in 2015

From the very first moment (April 2015), protothema.gr with a series of publications brought to light the then inexplicable government decision to modernize the decommissioned P-3Bs, which had been out of service for a decade, but despite this, the prosecution authorities turned a deaf ear.

The second-hand P-3Bs were a donation of US aid (1991-1992) and joined the PN, and were decommissioned in 2009, as they had among other things, completed their stipulated flight hours.

Indeed, Proto Thema had revealed the letter of the later deceased Denis Plessas, Lockheed-Martin’s vice president and head of the US weapons systems company’s office in Athens, in which it was made clear that the modernization of the P-3B aircraft at an estimated cost of $500 million was considered by Lockheed itself to be “not economically acceptable” and “not a technically and economically advantageous solution”. In the clearest and most explicit terms, Lockheed warned in its letter that the reconstruction of the existing P-3Bs would cost the Greek State more than other solutions.

By way of example, Denis Plessas in May 2013 in a letter to the Directorate of Armaments of the General Staff warned that “the activation of the P-3Bs is not the appropriate low-cost, low-risk option in the short or long term” and that the process of upgrading the Navy’s P-3Bs that have been idle for almost a decade “carries great risk.”

Specifically, Denis Plessas had suggested that instead of rebuilding the P-3Bs, a decision should be taken to procure the newer P-3C aircraft, noting that this solution would cost the Greek State less money, while fully satisfying the long-term needs of the Armed Forces and meeting the short-term requirements of the Navy with aircraft “much more modern than the existing ones”.

Apart from all this, the strong impression that the fact that the upgrade of the naval cooperation aircraft was not discussed in Parliament by the SYRIZA-Annel government in 2015 was recorded through the columns of Proto Thema, despite the fact that the cost of the program increased by 30% due to the change in the euro/dollar exchange rate within a few months. In other words, while on October 30, 2014 the exchange rate was at 1:1.27, the activation of the contract and LOA took place with the exchange rate at 1:1.08.

At that time it was pointed out that the implementation of the entire aircraft upgrade program was essentially done in secret. This was because there was no official announcement – as is customary – of the main features of the program. But neither was there any announcement of both the decision taken by the KYSEA on 15 March 2015 when it approved the upgrade of the five aircraft at an estimated cost of $500 million, and the activation of the contract with the disbursement of the $45 million advance.

In the controversial period of April 2015, the then SYRIZA MEP Costas Chrysogonos, implicitly but clearly “nailing” Kammenos, had spoken about the need for further explanations from the then government and the Minister of National Defence on “why this $500 million expenditure for the reconstruction of the warplanes is urgent”. Characteristically, he had stressed that a debate had to be held in Parliament in order to provide detailed explanations on the urgency of the matter, as “many questions are raised as to why this move should be considered a top priority for the Greek government at this time.”

“It is clear, however,” Chrysogonos had stressed, that “the political responsibility lies with the defence minister, especially since he is also a government partner.”

Doubts about Mr Kammenos

In his lawsuit, retired Hellenic Navy officer Stamatis raises some questions for the prosecutors who will conduct the investigation. Questions regarding the actions of Mr. Kamenos. Indicatively, the retired PN officer asks:

“In a period of time (2015) when the State’s cash reserves are almost exhausted and the government is wavering over the dilemma of whether to pay salaries and pensions or the installments to the lenders, in a period of dire economic straits, when the Greek State is desperately seeking funds to pay salaries and pensions by freezing deposits of DEKOs, or even the reserves of the regions, at the very moment when the government was looking for 200 million for the humanitarian crisis and people on the verge of absolute poverty, some people decided to throw 500 million into an obviously unnecessary and harmful deal to modernize overhead aircraft.”

In his 31-page lawsuit petition, the former HN officer, after citing heaps of evidence, underlines: “As is now amply demonstrated, therefore, neither was the modernization of the P-3Bs an imperative, nor was it the best choice,” he adds: “This decision and the disbursement were taken in conditions of quasi-fiscal bankruptcy and acute economic crisis of the citizens, at a time when the citizens were bleeding to close the deficits.”

Addressing Ms Adilini, Stamatis underlines: “Responsibility should be attributed for the blatantly and demonstrably most harmful to the Greek State contract with the contractor Lockheed for the execution of the modernization and upgrade of the Navy’s P3 naval cooperation aircraft” and continues: “There was undoubtedly harmful the contract, since although it has been fully paid off since 2020, not a single aircraft today, in 2024, is operationally ready to fly!”

Elsewhere in the statement of claim, Stamatis underlines:

“In this particular case, officials unknown to me, who drafted and co-signed the above documents for the purpose of drawing up the harmful contract, in full knowledge that they were wrongdoers, committed the offences and even with a close legal definition, both in their objective and subjective substance.”