A sweeping crackdown targeting employees at urban planning offices across Greece is now underway, led by the head of the country’s Independent Authority Against Money Laundering, Charalampos Vourliotis.
The authority’s president, backed by specialized staff, will comb through the full financial records of employees holding key positions at planning offices from one end of Greece to the other.
In the crosshairs of the authority are not only the planning office employees recently arrested for participation in a criminal organization and subsequently jailed, but also their colleagues at planning offices throughout the country. The investigation was triggered directly by the recent criminal network case involving planning offices.
According to sources, the authority’s scrutiny will not stop at the employees and executives themselves. It will extend to their family members as well. Tax returns will be examined in exhaustive detail, along with asset declarations required by law, including when specific assets were acquired and whether those acquisitions can be justified by the individuals’ declared income. Third parties who may have played a role as accomplices in the movement of illicit funds will also be investigated.
“This is an enormous investigation by any measure, and it will take a considerable amount of time,” sources familiar with the case noted, acknowledging the scale of the challenge. For each planning office where the audit is completed, a separate report will be drawn up if any red flags are found. Should that report indicate evidence of criminal activity, it will be referred to the competent prosecutor to open a preliminary inquiry into money laundering, and any suspect assets will be frozen.
In connection with those already in pretrial detention from the most recent criminal case, Vourliotis has already identified real estate and cash holdings and issued freeze orders against them.
Two additional asset freeze operations are also underway.
The first reportedly involves a pharmacist in the northern suburbs of Athens who was recently arrested and released, after the authority identified cash holdings amounting to 2.5 million euros.
The second concerns a case involving the trafficking of adulterated olive oil, with estimated losses to the state reaching 3.5 million euros. In that case, the authority identified more than ten properties, multiple vehicles, and a bank safety deposit box, all of which have likewise been ordered frozen.
