THE lecturer – accountantthe haythe 40 companiesthe 55 propertiesthe NSRF programs and the villa they made with European funds make up the puzzle pieces of an incredible story with background criminal organization With fake Covid certificates they were getting money from the Greek State for alleged houses and rooms that rented the time of the pandemic.
The overall illegal benefit gained by the criminal organization and is a corresponding damage to the Greek State and the EU exceeds the 5.737.413 euroswhile attempted, in the same way to cause damage to the amount of 3.777,562 euros. As part of their revenue legalization, they had installed a daunting interbank channel consisting of 122 bank accounts belonging to the network of companies, through which they were carried out 57.253 at least transactions, 10.897.157 euros.
Arrests
It all started at the beginning of the year, and over the weekend there was a large -scale operation during which 21 surveys were carried out in homes, businesses and a door, in the context of a criminal organization, whose members committed criminal frauds at the expense of the Greek State and the European Union.
6 members of the criminal organization were arrestedwhile co -defendants are 6 more people. From the many months of investigation, it was found that at least since June 2020, the defendants have formed a structured criminal organization in which they sought in a well -organized way of committing deceit and forgery against the Greek State and the European Union.
The leader
The criminal organization, formed and raised a 54 -year -old accountantwhich had the required know -how, in order to deal with the competent authorities and to carry out the procedures required for the approval of the applications and the deception of public bodies, while gradually joined and joined the other points.
An important role in the functioning of the criminal organization had three relatives of the leader, while the other members were a national, responsible for evaluation of financing programs as well as three nationals and four foreigners, who had the role of “barbaric”.
The 40 companies
The members had developed a specific network, a supply chain, taking advantage of the existing structure and organization of their companies, as well as those who later recommended (their own and “barbarians”) in the explored period, thus concealing their illegal activity.
In this context, the defendants had developed a network of 40 companies, through which they were locating virtual real estate leasing contracts, setting too high rents that were not justified.
Subsequently, taking advantage of the urgent measures to address the consequences of the risk of spreading the Covid-19 Coronovation, they made false Covid statements, demanding the payment of the aforementioned leases, with the sole purpose of damaging the Greek State and the respectively.
In addition, it was revealed that, in the case of submissions of false COVID declarations that did not perform and rejected, on a case -by -case basis, lawsuits involved between involved, in order to avoid any other legal consequences, such as the imposition of the taxable taxes and their exemption from any further audits.
The 55 properties
This illegal activity was used by 55 properties, including the accused houses, even an apartment of semi -finished building, for which a monthly rent of EUR 74,000 was declared. The virtuality of the contracts was obvious taking into account:
The iconliness of some companies,
The height of the leases combined with the particular characteristics of the lease, such as the fair value of the zone that belonged to them and their surface,
The period of time the contracts under investigation took place, namely the period of exacerbation of COVID-19, which was accompanied by remarkable economic downturn,
the declared use of the lease (such as the services of hosting events),
the alternation of the same companies, as well as their status in contracts, as a landlord and lessee.
the successive use of the same property by many of the companies involved
the lease statement in areas where companies did not declare branches/activity,
The solution of leases and re -training them, in order to either eliminate any restrictions on their further lease (eg banning a superstar), or to draw up new contracts with much higher rents,
The amount of the sub -lending between the companies involved, which is much higher and multiple than the initial (real) leases with the original owners.
NSRF programs and villa
The defendants succeeded, using the above network of companies, to become illegally beneficiaries and other financial grants through the NSRF programs, submitting false and fake information for their approval and integration. The falsified documents include banking evidence, AADE documents and more. Characteristic is the case of construction, through a NSRF program, a villa – a villa on the pretext of exploiting it as a rented accommodation, which was actually used as a home of two meters of the organization.
In addition, in the above companies, taking advantage of the transfer of liability to barriers, they secured on a case -by -case basis to them, without paying the value of the insurance contributions by misleading EFKA to their actual administrator and depriving it of the ability to regain the value of the contributions.
The rinsing
As for the legalization of their illegal revenue, they were absorbed by the above network of companies and placed on the same bank accounts that loaned the profits from the legal activity of the companies. The analysis of their banking movements have found the use of many accounts of different persons and companies, as well as a large number of continuous transport of the same amounts between their accounts, which is incompatible with trading habits and appear to have been carried out to conceal their flow and origin of money and their final legalization.
The money was then investing back to companies by expanding their legal activity (raising corporate funds, construction of immovable property, etc.), which also contributed to the further development of their criminal network, either transferred to bank accounts abroad, or were used to cover their individual consumer needs.
What was found
In research conducted in various areas of Attica and Corinth, they were found and confiscated, inter alia:
The amount of € 61,900,
bank checks totaling EUR 24,200,
two gold pounds,
numerous withdrawal cards,
numerous documents and stamps of companies,
eight mobile phone devices,
a precision scales,
quantity of cocaine, weight 21.48 g,
Nine drugs ecstasy.