In Crete, most of the VAT IDs who received illegal subsidies from OPEKEPE are found, as it appears from the map with all the regions released after the Announcements of the Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoid.
The map details how many cases are recorded per region by a total of 1,036 VAT IDs which have been shown to be involved in the case of illegal subsidies.
Crete has the negative record with 850 VAT IDs received illegal subsidies totaling 17,234,459.85 euros out of the 22.6 overall across the country.
Presenting the results of the survey, today at noon, Mr. Chrysochoidis said that a total of 1,036 VAT were found that illegally received 22.7m euros through subsidies. At the same time, he announced that an order was issued by the public prosecutor for a preliminary examination.
As he stated, in total they were investigated 6.354 VAT Within a month and a half, noting that the road to the commitment of the defendants’ property has been paved.
OPEKEPE’s case “hurt Greek society,” Mr Chrysochoidis said, adding: “Some cannot and should not be tolerated by some to consider valuable public resources. These resources are intended to support the Greek agricultural economy and not for the illegal and unjustified enrichment of some. The task of the state is to launch all the mechanisms it has to prevent and where it needs to control, detect and punish transgression. “
Mr. Chrysochoidis noted that it was decided to Investigation in depth of the casewhile recalling that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation, which is ongoing.
Preliminary examination and asset of assets
And the Minister continued:
“So, by the supervisor of the Prosecutor’s Organized Crime, Issued order to performed a preliminary examination which began the investigation by the DAOK by the Directorate of Organized Crime and more specifically by the Directorate of Financial Crimes, the Single Applications for the Aid of Natural and Legal Persons to OPEKEPE.
With this order, therefore, a preliminary examination is ordered in order to collect by any legal appropriate means the necessary evidence to be judged by the competent prosecutor.
In addition, I tell you that the transmission of investigative reports to the prosecutor’s prosecutor to date, has as result her Commitment to the property rights of applicants to unnecessary aid. ”
The above order is ordered the conduct a preliminary examinationin order to collect, by any appropriate evidence, the necessary evidence to be judged, by the competent prosecutor, whether a criminal prosecution should be initiated for the following acts:
- criminal organization/recommendation/gang,
- Common and distinguished fraud on grants, once and for all,
- Common and distinguished forgery by unit and by co -conspiracy, once and for all,
- Ethics / complicity in the above acts by unit and by co -conspiracy, serial, once and for all.
To execute the prosecution order, the service took the following actions:
- Ensure the genuine and inviolable digital data, by extracting a copy and seizure it from the OPECEPE information system where they relate to single applications for aid (EAE) natural/ legal persons to the Agency. This procedure lasted from July 9, 2025 to July 28, 2025.
- The approval of the public prosecutor set criteria for the start of the investigation and the identification of the original forms of fraud. The determination of the criteria until the current period of time resulted from the earlier investigation of similar cases of the service, the evaluation of complained information, information provided and taking into account the requirements for the provision of subsidies.
1.036 The “sinful VAT” – 6,354 checked
According to Mr. Chrysochoid, were checked 6,354 VAT who had applied for, 1,036 were identified for which reports were reported to the prosecutor and charged 22.6 million euros. As the minister pointed out, the process of committing property is starting.
In summary, as the Minister continued, during the investigation, the digital data was exported to the investigation. relate to 819,620 applications for unique beneficiaries for the period of time from the 2019 to 2024.
The, to date, investigating cases, which has been found fraudulent in financial subsidies, has highlight the following methods:
- Falsification of the legal ownership of the applicants declared parcels.
- False statement of ownership of the deceased owners after hereditary rights or in the absence of them.
- False statement of ownership of animal capital.
- Submission of unique applications by beneficiaries without fullness of selection criteria.
- False declaration of parcels by beneficiaries outside their residence or professional activity.
The minister pointed out that the prosecutor’s order is executed continuously and for this purpose a special group of police officers will be created by the Organized Crime Management Directorate to continue the investigation, with the following objectives:
- Continuous updating of the criteria for marking applications of unique beneficiaries (VAT).
- Examination of criminal groups, which were organized to obtain relevant subsidies.
- Determination of methods developed to deceive the subsidy mechanism.
Source: Skai
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