Architect-engineer jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of being the ‘lead actor’ in mortgage fraud through former Agricultural Bank which were disbursed in the period 2006 – 2008 in the “name” of Roma borrowers, damaging the financial institution with the amount of 4.36 million euros.

The Three-member Criminal Appeal Court of Thessaloniki found him guilty of forgery, fraud and money laundering, without recognizing any mitigating circumstances, and decided not to suspend the execution of his sentence before the Court of Appeal, with the consequence that he will be sent to prison.

For the same case- which was revealed in her city Catherine and following an internal audit of the Bank – a civil engineer, an external associate of the local bank branch, from where the loans were disbursed, was also convicted. She was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 6 years in prison, and was released on probation and bail. 20 Roma borrowers, many of whom were not residents of Pieria, were referred to the bench of the same court. The court acquitted them of the act of fraud attributed to them.

How the fraud was “set up”.

According to the indictment, the main defendant, after obtaining the power of attorney from the Roma borrowers – for whom he was supposed to build single-family houses – forged employers’ certificates and salary slips in order to present their creditworthiness. It is characteristic that the borrowers appeared to have monthly salaries of 1600 to 1800 euros, while according to the certificates many of them had the same employer.

According to the same will, his co-accused civil engineer presented the alleged residences – with an area of ​​35 sq.m. – overestimated in terms of their commercial value, at the same time confirming the progress of the construction works, so that the disbursement of the loans proceeds.

35 housing loans were found at the center of the investigation by the prosecuting authorities, with the disbursement amount – in the majority – of 135,000 euros.

“Where are our houses?”

“I don’t know economics, I have no idea about it,” said the accused architect engineer in his apology, denying the acts attributed to him. He apologized that as a proxy he received the money disbursed from the bank in cash and gave it to the Roma, without knowing the forgery of the documents. When asked by the headquarters if he has collection receipts, he replied that they were destroyed when his house was flooded in 2009. “This money is not in any account, neither mine nor my relatives'” he said, provoking the angry reaction of the Roma co-accused who asked him “where are our houses”.

For her part, the civil engineer apologized for being a “victim of plagiarism”. She also claimed that she was under pressure to complete the files so that the loans could be disbursed because her co-accused “was a good customer of the bank”. He admitted that he did not carry out on-site autopsies on the progress of the work, which he admitted “was my fault”.

Commenting on what the defendant apologized for, the president of the Court said: “These thoughtless acts are paid for by the Greek people.”