European prosecutors in Athens brought criminal charges Wednesday against 22 people from the southern island of Crete for alleged involvement in a European Union farm subsidy scandal that has rocked Greece and embarrassed the conservative government.
The suspects were brought to the port of Piraeus earlier and taken to the Greek branch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for questioning.
They were formally accused of alleged offenses including membership of a criminal organization with a purpose to commit multiple fraud, running a criminal organization, and subsidy fraud that cost the EU and the Greek state coffers more than €120,000.
The suspects are accused of fraudulently obtaining EU farm subsidies through the now-defunct OPEKEPE agency that was responsible for disbursing the funds in Greece.
Scores of people are believed to have made fraudulent subsidy claims for fictitious farming activity on land they neither owned nor rented. The scandal also took on a political aspect after the EPPO sought to investigate lawmakers and former cabinet members from the governing conservative New Democracy party. All have denied wrongdoing.
