They were promised large loans with favorable arrangements from a financial institution of the United Arab Emirates, of course with the indemnity.
Makis Synodinos
The mastermind of a well-organized fraud that defrauded businessmen and caused financial damage to the victims of approximately 800,000 euros, is allegedly the protected witness in the Novartis case “Maximos Sarafis” against Filistor Destepesidis.
Taking advantage of the financial crisis in Greece and the non-granting of large loans by Greek banks, Destepesides and his accomplices through a non-existent company in the United Arab Emirates requested loans from their prospective victims in order to develop their business activities.
In fact, in order to be believed by the entrepreneurs they were attracting, they had also created a website for the company under the name Zahrat-commercial.
However, according to the police, the address listed on the website is not true, while the appointments with the clients were made at an office in the University.
According to ELAS, the perpetrators presented themselves as saviors to businessmen who wanted a loan and could not be served by Greek banks.
They were promised large loans with favorable arrangements from a financial institution of the United Arab Emirates, of course with the indemnity.
Police sources state that for the mediation in the bank of the United Arab Emirates, the spiral had a price list which many businessmen paid but never received the loans they expected.
Specifically, the customer had to pay 100,000 euros for a down payment, 18,500 euros for the security of the loan, 55,000 euros for taxation reasons, 18,500 euros for licensing the loan, 25,000 euros for a release from a bond and 55,000 for opening an account.
From the ELAS investigation so far, seven cases of fraud have been discovered, from which the members of the criminal organization obtained approximately 800,000 euros, while the threatened loss exceeds 1,000,000 euros.
However, the police officers of the Property Rights Department of the General Police Directorate of Attica estimate that the number of victims will exceed 15.
Among those defrauded are the owner of a large hotel in Athens, a businessman active in the tourism industry, a businessman involved in fish farming, a manufacturer of gaming software and a cheese seller.
The victims had so much trust in Destepesides and his accomplices that they did not believe the police officers who approached them to explain that they had been the victims of fraud.
In two cases, the victims even accused the police of being competitors of Zahrat-commercial and of wanting to spoil their lending.
The organization was so well organized that in some cases they extracted extra sums of money up to 25,000 euros from the same businessmen under the pretext that their loan is “stuck” because it is in common with other borrowers who have not repaid it. In order to “unstick” it, the company asked for and received 25,000 euros.
In addition to Destepesides, two more people have been arrested so far who posed as his associates and pretended to be the authorities in financial matters for the United Arab Emirates.
In fact, one of them, in order to strengthen the image of authority, claimed that he had lived in the country for a number of years or that his wife worked for the non-existent company in question, respectively, assuming the role of a mediator, ready to provide solutions to any problem that arose.
Four more people participated in the organization. Three who are believed by the authorities to be in the United Arab Emirates and a woman who is believed to be living in Cyprus.
The woman is the one who managed the bank accounts where the victims’ money ended up.
According to information, Philistor Destepesidis, who is accused of being the mastermind of the organization, in the statement he gave to the security men, denied any connection with the fraud while declaring “if there is fraud then I am also a victim of it».
The prosecutor of first instance, however, prosecuted him as a felony for the offenses of forming a criminal organization, fraud, forgery and money laundering.
The prosecution is directed against the other arrested as well as the four who are wanted.
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