Some of the alleged leaders of a criminal group accused of siphoning off millions in Greek EU farm subsidies have been taken into pre-trial custody, state media reported Sunday.
They are accused of having run a longstanding fraud to get more than they were entitled from the EU farming scheme by boosting the number of animals they owned.
Police arrested 37 suspects on Wednesday and eight of the alleged ringleaders were ordered held in pre-trial detention at hearings over the weekend, state TV channel ERT and the ANA news agency reported.
The case has put pressure on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, given that most of the allegedly fraudulent subsidies went to Crete – his family’s powerbase.
“We will not back down, whatever the political cost,” Mitsotakis said on Sunday of the inquiry, vowing that the guilty would be punished.
He has pointed out that the fraud, which Greek authorities estimate amounts to at least 23 million euros, began in 2016 – three years before he came to power.
The charges the suspects face include being part of a criminal organisation, fraud, obtaining false certification and money laundering from criminal activity.
If convicted, they could face jail terms of up to 20 years.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) described it as a “large-scale agricultural funding fraud”, adding that most of the suspects appeared to have no link to farming.
“To conceal the illicit origin of the proceeds, the suspects are believed to have issued fictitious invoices, routed the funds through multiple bank accounts, and mixed them with legitimate income,” the EPPO said in a statement.
Source: AFP