The Greek Minister of Residents Safety, Michalis Chrysochoidis, on Monday offered the primary outcomes of a police investigation into organised fraud with EU agricultural funds involving officers of the Greek Cost Authority for the Frequent Agricultural Coverage Support Schemes, often known as OPEKEPE.
Greek police investigated 6,354 tax identification numbers, of which 1,036 have been recognized as having illegally obtained EU agricultural subsidies amounting to 22.7 million euros over the interval 2019 to 2024.
“It can not and should not be tolerated that some persons are embezzling priceless public assets, whether or not nationwide or European. These assets are meant to assist Greek agricultural manufacturing, not the unlawful and unjustified enrichment of some,” Chrysochoidis mentioned.
The prosecution has already ordered an investigation and frozen the belongings of the suspects. Chrysochoidis mentioned it is going to be determined whether or not legal prosecution needs to be initiated in Greece for the institution of a legal organisation, fraud associated to subsidies, forgery or different offences. The case can also be being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, EPPO.
Varied Greek people allegedly submitted false declarations to OPEKEPE of land possession, or falsified leases of land, which they didn’t personal or had not leased, costing the EU finances a number of million euros.
EPPO in June mentioned it had forwarded data to the Greek parliament on the alleged involvement of two unnamed former rural improvement ministers who Greek media later recognized as Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis. Each have denied wrongdoing.
Below the rip-off, pretend “livestock farmers” cropped up throughout the nation, notably on the island of Crete. Some declared themselves homeowners of land on Mykonos, an island not identified for agricultural manufacturing.
The Greek investigative media outlet Inside Story revealed that some so-called farmers with none animals had obtained subsidies by declaring land that really lies in neighbouring North Macedonia.
A parliamentary investigative committee shall be summoned on September 15 to look at the function of OPEKEPE within the alleged subsidies rip-off.
