European prosecutors in Athens on Thursday charged 17 people arrested in northern Greece for alleged fraud involving European Union farm subsidies, a day after 22 people from Crete were formally accused, separately, of similar criminal offenses.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges including for alleged membership of a criminal organization, criminal fraud against the EU and money laundering against the 17 suspects.
They are accused of fraudulently obtaining EU agricultural funds through Greece’s now-defunct OPEKEPE agency for disbursing EU farm subsidies.
Hundreds 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 tinge after the EPPO sought to investigate lawmakers and former cabinet members from the governing conservative New Democracy party for allegedly arranging for political cronies and supporters to receive subsidies. All have denied wrongdoing.
Apart from the 17 suspects arrested Tuesday in Thessaloniki and the northern towns of Kavala, Serres and Kilkis, another 300 people face charges of alleged involvement in the same racket, that cost the EU and Greece an estimated €4.5 million.
