More than 50 court orders have been issued to seize assets—including bank deposits, real estate, and other holdings—of individuals suspected of receiving agricultural subsidies through fraudulent declarations to OPEKEPE (Greek Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aid).
According to information obtained by Kathimerini, the total value of seized assets exceeds €1.5 million, matching the amount believed to have been unlawfully disbursed via falsified claims.
Criminal Investigation Escalates
The government is expected to make official statements on the matter by the end of August. In a significant escalation of the investigation, a unit of the Financial Police—now operating under the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime—raided OPEKEPE’s offices on July 9, initially following a probe launched by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
Police officers, assisted by forensic experts, remained on-site for approximately three weeks, copying databasescontaining over 600,000 tax ID numbers (AFMs) tied to the annual disbursement of EU farming subsidies.
Order Issued by Prosecutor Dimitris Gyzis
The directive to activate Greece’s so-called “FBI equivalent” came from Supervising Prosecutor Dimitris Gyzis, following allegations referenced in EPPO documents sent to the Greek Parliament. These suggested the existence of a criminal organization exploiting the OPEKEPE system.
“The fraudulent allocation of payment rights from the national reserve was orchestrated by criminal networks, including members of OPEKEPE’s board, ministry officials, employees of the agency’s technical consultant, and private operators of application support centers,” the EPPO report noted.
Under the legal framework governing the special unit’s operations, Prosecutor Gyzis is empowered to freeze assets preemptively, based on initial evidence, without waiting for formal criminal charges to be filed.
Target List: 5,000 Suspicious Tax IDs
In recent weeks, the Financial Police compiled a list of around 5,000 AFMs believed to be linked to fraudulent subsidy applications.
This includes so-called “single-time applicants”—individuals who applied for subsidies only once, often posing as first-time farmers or livestock breeders to exploit the system.
A key filtering criterion was the amount received. Authorities prioritized cases involving subsidies exceeding €20,000, deeming them high-risk and potentially indicative of organized fraud.
Source: pagenews.gr