A Greek magistrate specializing in corruption cases has begun inspecting the contents of bank safe deposit boxes belonging to key suspects in the urban planning bribery scandal that has been uncovered by the Internal Affairs Service of the Hellenic Police.
After the scandal broke, Charalampos Vourliotis, head of Greece’s anti-money laundering authority, froze all assets belonging to the accused, including their bank accounts and safe deposit boxes. The investigating magistrate then asked the authority for permission to open the boxes held by a number of the suspects. The authority agreed, partially lifting the freeze on those specific assets so that any findings could be weighed alongside the existing evidence in the case file.
Lawyers familiar with the case say it is serious and far from over. Beyond those already arrested, additional individuals have been identified and are now under judicial scrutiny, based on material from the preliminary inquiry.
Background: The Urban Planning Corruption Case
Six people have been in custody since the operation came to light. The internal affairs unit of the Hellenic Police arrested them after months of investigation, conducting raids on planning offices in the northern Athens suburbs of Maroussi, Galatsi and Kifissia. Five were civil servants; one was a private individual. More than 30 people in total are named in the case file, among them civil servants, engineers, architects and businesspeople. The network had allegedly been running since at least October 2025, with members using their positions to fix planning cases in exchange for payments of between 1,000 and 30,000 euros per case.
The FIU has also launched a broader financial review of the case and is pulling together an initial set of findings. If that review turns up evidence of criminal conduct, the authority will open a separate case file and pass it to the relevant prosecutor.
