Six companies of financial consultants were providing companies that did not meet the requirements to join programs of the National Strategic Reference Network (NSRF) forged letters of guarantee, during the last three years.

According to information released by the Financial Unit of the Police, the companies paid approximately 100,000 euros for each of the forged letters of guarantee, while a single company issued more than 1,400 fake letters.

The police began investigating the case six months ago, when several officials of the Ministry of Development filed complaints regarding invalid letters, and the case file that was established includes 17 people, three of which have been arrested.

The companies of financial consultants that were involved in the criminal network provided their clients letters of guarantee from foreign banking institutions, which are not included in the list of the Bank of Greece.

The fraud pattern

The 2013 law that allowed the presentation of letters of guarantee from foreign banks as part of the grant application, paved the way for such frauds to receive European funds.

The first step of the criminal network’s members was to issue the letters of guarantee via foreign financial institutions that are not included in the list of the Bank of Greece. Then the financial consultant companies would submit the grant application of the company. However, when the Ministry of Development officials started cross-checking the data, they realized that the letters of guarantee were invalid.

As a result, the network’s members started to forge the mark of the banks that are included in the BoG’s list on the letters of the banks that are not included!