“I am not a lawyer but I believe that in this case it is a criminal organization with a specific hierarchy, duration and structure with the aim of committing criminal acts against me. I am a victim of blackmail.” These are the first words of Nikolaos Korovesis, Deputy District Governor of Ilia, to the police, in his testimony on November 29, revealing his extortion by specific people in total of seven, according to his publication in the “Patris” newspaper.

The case caused a shock when it was revealed. This was followed by arrests, apologies of the accused, with the judicial authorities ordering the pre-trial detention of the 44-year-old alleged mastermind and one of his 36-year-old accomplices.

“They told me they sent the messages as a warning joke”

According to the Deputy Governor’s complaint, it all started on May 13, 2023.

“I received an SMS message on my mobile phone with the number 697…. from an application that I could not answer and with the content “Wake up one morning and be a front page scandal in the Media.” After a few days I received another sms from the same sender. Coming several days later to my office to ask for jobs from the district, the 44-year-old admitted before me and my partner that he himself had sent the messages as a warning joke.

At the beginning of the summer, the Deputy Governor of Ilias receives a phone call from a lawyer asking him to go to his office. She told him she was a representative of the 44-year-old and one other person. They showed him his sensitive personal data.

“I replied to the lawyer that these are sensitive personal data and he undertook to “reconcile” us, threatening me almost directly that if I do not pay a sum of money, copies will be given to Triantafyllopoulos, who owns the site zougla.gr, which the 44-year-old owns and will play on all channels”.

“He was asking me to give him money and jobs from the Region”

The Deputy Governor gives in to blackmail and initially they ask him for 3,000 euros.

“After handing over the money, the 44-year-old man literally told me ‘from now on I will bring you a sword’ and I left.” But a few months later there was a second approach.

“In March 2024 and after I had assumed my new duties, the 44-year-old called me on my mobile phone to go to his shop and discuss business. In particular, he asked me to assign him the work of the region for the sum of 10,000 euros for cultural events and 10,000 euros for organizing conferences.”

The Deputy Governor refused and reveals what happened next: “After a few days, he started making public posts on his social media profile, sending me some messages.”

The Deputy Governor calls him on the phone and they arrange a meeting. “Coming to my office he urgently asked me to give him money and jobs from the Region. Since I had no money, I turned to my friend who gave the 44-year-old 18,000 euros. Then they gave the Deputy Governor a responsible statement which reads “as a sign of gratitude I will not make any connection to the media”. In his testimony, the Deputy District Governor reveals dialogues with the involved persons that cause shock while they even threatened him with a lawsuit.

Along the way, there is another attack for money: “Then blackmail began again and constant pressure and repeated phone calls through a lawyer and we ended up through discussions and compromises that I hand over 13,000 euros from the original amount of 50,000 euros to a certain person.”

N. Korovesis, unable to bear the blackmail any longer, went to the Security Department of Ilia and reported everything. After the appointment at his lawyer’s office, the police arrested two people with pre-marked banknotes. The indictment included felony counts of racketeering, professional extortion and attempted extortion.

“I’ve been accused and now I’m losing my job for something I have no idea about.”

The 36-year-old accused in his plea claimed that he met the Deputy Governor ten years ago. He claimed that because of some comments he heard he had asked his lawyer to sue the Deputy Governor for defamation.

“I was pissed off and contacted a lawyer to take legal action for defamation. The lawyer advised me to contact the Deputy Governor and his lawyer himself and see what they say and we will talk again. I left blank to act as a lawyer knows because I don’t know about them. My lawyer told me that he has spoken with Korovesis and his lawyer and they said an out of court settlement so that we don’t get involved in the courts. That is, I would sign a paper that I will not bother him again and he will not bother me either, meaning that he will not tell the world about me again and they will give us 13,000 euros to avoid going to court. I accepted the compromise.”

The 36-year-old defendant claimed that he was away for a long time for work in Santorini and has no involvement in the two extortions. He invoked messages from the Deputy Governor who, however, could not produce them because he claimed that he had deleted them.

His relationship with the alleged mastermind was typical, he said. “I’ve been accused and now I’m losing my job for something I have no idea about. There are no conversations of mine because they were deleted at the time they were taking place. I don’t think I committed blackmail. I figure I was going to settle out of court because otherwise I wouldn’t be going to a lawyer’s office with another lawyer in to blackmail. I don’t think that’s how extortion works.

The Deputy Governor revealed to the authorities the dialogue he had with one of the accused shortly before he was arrested. “I asked him ‘are we done?’ and he answered me: “I don’t know if you have done with the others as you have done with me. Then I was convinced that I had made the right decision.”

The “Patris” newspaper contacted the lawyer of the Deputy Governor, Mr. Gerasimos Papagiannopoulos for what was revealed.

“Every person must live free and be protected. We have a duty as a society, especially we, as co-workers of justice, to ensure that all our fellow human beings will be able to live, work and express themselves freely, without being terrorized, without being afraid, without being blackmailed. The message is one and clear: Justice is rooted in the truth and always stands by the person”.

The Deputy Governor of Ilia is also represented by lawyer Theodoros Antonopoulos.