A key role in the operation of the criminal organisation that defrauded the Public Sector by taking millions of euros was played by the accountant referred to as the leader. This is because he possessed the necessary expertise to deal with the relevant authorities and carry out the procedures required to approve the applications submitted and defraud public bodies.

The action of the circuit that managed to “pocket”, according to the Hellenic Police, more than 5 million euros is described in detail in the case file that has been formed for the case.

Fraud through 40 companies

As revealed by the investigation of the officials of the Financial Crimes Sub-Directorate, the defendants had developed a network of 40 companies through which they “got their hands” on public money. In particular, between these legal entities, they were drawing up fictitious real estate lease contracts, setting excessively high rents that were not justified by good faith and business ethics. For this illegal activity, they used 55 properties, including the homes of the defendants, and even a yard.

The fictitious nature of the contracts becomes apparent, especially if the amount of the rents is taken into account in combination with the particular characteristics of the leased properties, such as the objective value of the zone to which they belonged and their surface area. Indicative of this is the fact that they declared that they were renting a house in Nikea, 57 sqm, for 20,000 euros per month.

At the same time, the period during which the contracts under investigation took place, i.e. the period of the covid boom, which was accompanied by a notable economic downturn, confirm their virtuality, especially if, in addition to the above characteristics, the declared use of the rental house (such as, for example, services for the organization of entertainment events) is taken into account. Subsequently, taking advantage of the urgent measures to deal with the consequences of the risk of spreading the coronavirus, they made false COVID declarations, requesting the payment of the aforementioned rents, which they had previously declared fictitiously, with the sole purpose of damaging the Greek State and gaining a correspondingly illegal pecuniary benefit.

At the same time, it was observed that, in the attempts of fraud, namely the submission of false covid declarations that were not successful and were rejected, they occasionally brought actions against their counterparties to the real estate leases for non-payment of the rents, in order to avoid any other legal consequences, such as the imposition of the prescribed taxes and their exemption from any further audits by the tax authorities.

In addition to the covid declarations, they also made false applications to other public bodies, supplying themwith fictitious data to mislead them, taking advantage of the above network of companies, in order either to include the latter in development programmes of the Ministry of Development (NSRF etc.) receiving subsidies, or to illegally receive further aid as repayable advances, using false data and fictitious documents in terms of turnover, available funds

The forged documents include evidence of banking transactions, documents from the AADE, etc. Typical is the case of the construction, through an NSRF programme, of a property – a villa under the pretext of using it as rented accommodation, which in reality was used as a house by two of the arrested persons.

At the same time, in the above companies, taking advantage of the transfer of liability (civil, criminal, administrative) to the straw men, they insured staff in them on a case-by-case basis, without paying the value of the insurance contributions (labour & employer’s), misleading EFKA as to the actual manager and depriving him of the possibility of recovering the value of the contributions.

Other safeguards and security measures that ensured that the criminal organization’s continuous and uninterrupted activity from 2020 to the present day were the complexity of this activity through the use of many different virtual companies/individual entities that they declared as their customers/suppliers and that only displayed transactions as if they were just that. The obfuscation of any investigations was also sought by the transactions carried out through the financial institution.

More specifically, the proceeds from their illegal activity were absorbed by the above network of companies and placed/mixed in the same bank accounts where the profits from the legal activity of the companies were credited.

According to the Hellenic Police, the analysis of their bank transactions revealed the use of several accounts of different persons and companies, as well as a large number of continuous transfers of the same amounts between their accounts, a fact that is not under the commercial manners and it seems that, they were carried out to hide the flow and origin of the money and their final legalization. In addition to the accounts of the lead member and his companies, the corporate bank accounts of the other members of the e.o. and their relatives were also used.

The money then seems to have been either invested back into the companies by expanding their legal activity (increasing corporate capital, building real estate, etc.), which, however, contributed to the further development of their criminal network and the commission of more frauds against the Greek State and the European Union.

They had 122 bank accounts

In particular, in order to legalize their income, they had set up a labyrinthine interbank channel consisting of 122 bank accounts belonging to the network of companies they had set up, both virtual and not.

Through these and carrying out at least 57,253 transactions, they transferred the amounts received from COVID applications (fictitious property leases), refundable withdrawals, and NSF subsidies, making constant movements between them to conceal their illegal origin and give legitimacy to the said revenues.

Subsequently, the members of the scheme made withdrawals of these funds, which were either used for the construction of luxury properties or re-deposited/credited in other accounts of the above network of companies to increase their corporate funds and re-commit crimes.

This money was found that it was recycled in the above network according to the purposes of the group while at the same time achieving its legalization.

Specifically, transfers between the bank accounts of the companies involved and the defendants were identified, amounting to at least 10,897,157 euros, as well as cash withdrawals totaling 13,042,601 euros, mainly made by the defendants.