One hundred and five mayors, prefects and former prefects as well as many advisers to local and municipal governments throughout Greece are being investigated by the Greek Financial Crime Squad (SDOE) for either taking bribes, accepting kickbacks, dealing in the black market, and even laundering funds. Specifically SDOE is investigating local authorities for unexplainable wealth, the possible direct authorization of public works to specific groups, virtual contractors, the overpricing of public projects, tax evasion by professionals and local businesses via the issuing false invoices to the state, the false pricing of real estate transfers to individuals and an abusive and illegal management of European Union funds.
According to an article in the Sunday Edition of "To Ethnos" many bank accounts have opened and all those suspected of fraud will have to provide sufficient evidence as to how they actually obtained their incredible wealth. Quoting sources, the article notes that some of these accounts have astronomical amounts of money, which were obviously obtained by crooked dealings and not earned honestly.
For instance, it was discovered that a former mayor in the prefecture of Fthiotida had a bank account with more than 3 million Euros in it, while a former Prefect in the Peloponnese had to justify why he had accumulated more than 2.5 million Euros in his account, and an adviser to one prefect in Macedonia was found to have roughly 2 million Euros of unexplained funds in his account as well.
SDOE's list also includes seven local businesses and organizations -or state backed-. According to the report, the municipal workers at these public owned companies were issuing counterfeit and fictitious invoices to suppliers. The case is so severe that following an order by the prosecution the investigation has now broadened and is looking at all the local government officials affiliated with these organization for possible involvement.
Judging by the results so far, SDOE has discovered millions of Euros in unexplainable funds, and hefty fines have already been slapped on many institutions, while individuals will now have to face severe penalties.
Posts
