Auditors with the independent authority for combating money laundering on Tuesday raided the offices of the now disbanded state agency at the center of a fraudulent agriculture subsidies scandal.
According to reports, the auditors collected information and documents dealing with eight to 10 “high-profile” individuals, and specifically whether they received illegal payments of subsidies emanating from Community and national coffers.
One of the individuals under scrutiny, according to the same reports, previously ran for office in the central Thessaly province under the banner of ruling New Democracy (ND) party.
The specific action by the money laundering watchdog, which falls under the jurisdiction of the finance ministry, comes on the heels of an ongoing investigation headed by a high-ranking supreme court prosecutor into the actual subsidies scam.
The development was followed hours later by the resignation of the political cadre holding a coordinator’s position within ND party and with a portfolio including ag-related Community resources and female entrepreneurship.
Kalliope Semertzidou’s name, as well as that of her husband, had figured prominently in news reports and social media over the recent period as linked with the subsidies probe, known as the “OPEKEPE scandal”. The acronym OPEKEPE refers to the now defunct Greek Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aids.
The couple reportedly received tens of thousands of euros in subsidies, which increased every year since 2021.
Semertzidou was prominently shown, among others, as driving a supercar. She ran as a candidate for New Democracy in the Kozani prefecture of western Macedonia in the 2019 general election, although she was not a candidate for the party in the 2023 election.
