In 1,036 cases, amounts were charged exceeding 22.6 million euros
“Some cannot and should not be tolerated by some to be consulted by valuable public resources, whether they are national or European. These resources are intended to support Greek agricultural production, not for the illegal and unjustified enrichment of some, “the Minister of Citizen Protection said, Michalis Chrysochoidis, Presenting, from Thessaloniki, the first results of the police investigation of his case OPECEPEfrom Thessaloniki.
In summary, during the investigation, digital data relating to applications for 819,620 unique beneficiaries for the period from 2019 to 2024 were exported. In these months “more than 6,000 applications were checked and more than 22 million euros were charged for over 1,000 euros.”
In detail, the statement by the Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoid is as follows:
“OPECEPE’s case hurt Greek society. It cannot and should not be tolerated by some to be consulted by valuable public resources, whether they are national or European. These resources are intended to support the Greek agricultural economy, not for the illegal and unjustified enrichment of some. Our duty, that is, the duty of the state, the government and the state is to put all the mechanisms into operation in order to prevent and, where necessary, to control, detect and punish the delinquency. And the mechanisms are made every day and more effective, with modern media, with men and women who are loyal and dedicated to their duty.
Legality, security is our duty, but also our common affair- society and state. Because, if we want a better future, we can only do it. With our common action, with our interest and concern for our neighbor and our country.
In detail,
Following meetings and communications of the relevant Services, ELAS, AADE and Services of the Ministry of Rural Development and, by order of the Prime Minister, it was decided to investigate in depth of the case related to the subsidies granted following applications to OPEKEKE.
Also, as is well known, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation.
Thus, by the Supervisor, the Directorate for Organized Crime, a prosecutor was issued for a preliminary examination, with which the investigation began, by the DAOE. | Division of the Prosecution of Financial Crimes of the Single Applications of Natural and Legal Entities to OPECE, 2019 – 2024.
The aforementioned order is ordered to conduct a preliminary examination, in order to collect, by any appropriate evidence, the necessary evidence to be judged by the competent prosecutor, whether the prosecution should be initiated for the following acts:
Criminal organization/recommendation/gang,
Common and distinguished fraud on grants, once and for all,
Common and distinguished forgery by unit and by co -conspiracy, once and for all,
Ethics / complicity in the above acts by unit and by co -conspiracy, serial, once and for all.
For the execution of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the service took the following actions.
I will mention some elements, absolutely formal and institutional, but critical about the legality, transparency and protection of data and personal data.
Ensuring the genuine and inviolable digital data, by extracting a copy and seizure it from the OPECE Information System. where they relate to single applications for aid (UAE) of natural/ legal persons to the Agency. This procedure lasted from July 9, 2025 to July 28, 2025.
The approval of the public prosecutor set criteria for the start of the investigation and the identification of the original forms of fraud. The determination of the criteria until the current period of time resulted from the earlier investigation of similar cases of the service, the evaluation of complained information, information provided and taking into account the requirements for the provision of subsidies.
We note that the VAT, which emerged with the application of the aforementioned criteria, were chosen to investigate, by the operators of the service, those who – from the first investigation – presented characteristics of delinquency – fraud.
To date, the following elements have emerged:
NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS (VAT) to investigate – 6,354
EXPECTED REPORTS – 1,036
CULTURE
In addition, I tell you that the transmission of investigative reports to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to date has resulted in the freezing rights of the applicants’ assets to unnecessarily paid aid.
In summary, digital data for 819,620 applications for unique beneficiaries for the period from 2019 to 2024 were exported during the investigation.
To date, the cases of fraud found financial subsidies has highlighted the following methods:
Falsification of the legal ownership of the applicants declared parcels.
False statement of ownership of the deceased owners after hereditary rights or in the absence of them.
False statement of ownership of animal capital.
Submission of unique applications by beneficiaries without fullness of selection criteria.
Or false declaration of parcels by beneficiaries outside their residence or professional activity.
The prosecutor’s order is executed continuously and for this purpose a special group of police officers will be created by the Organized Crime Management Directorate, that will continue to continue the research, with the following objectives:
Continuous updating of the criteria for marking applications of unique beneficiaries (VAT).
Examination of criminal groups, which were organized to obtain relevant subsidies.
Determination of methods developed to deceive the subsidy mechanism. “
The minister presented the above results accompanied by the Director of the Organized Crime Management Directorate, Lieutenant General Fotis Ditsis and the Director of the Organized Crime of Northern Greece, Police Officer Aristides Midzas.
