The Hellenic Police investigation in Northern Greece has revealed that the “Paidiki Chara” NGO used fake photos and invented stories of sick children to collect donations from unsuspecting citizens.

The case file describes not just financial fraud but an entire system of “moral collapse.” The months-long investigation by the Northern Greece branch of the so-called Greek FBI recorded 92 campaigns for 55 children, while 35 parents were questioned.

Fake details, fake photos

The plan was as calculated as it was cynical. A child who had already received financial support would be presented to donors again as a new case, with a different name, a new phone number and photos of a different person, so donors would not realize the family had been helped before.

In another case, the fraud ran so deep that it misled even the NGO’s own associates without their knowledge. In one incident, an associate of the NGO reshared an appeal without knowing that the child, presented under a false name, had already died.

The exploitation did not stop there. When the mother of a child with advanced cancer tried to raise the money for treatment on her own, the organization reported her for fraud because her account was not an official fundraising account, eventually getting it deactivated.

One case examined involves an appeal for a child with the initial T. A woman who had donated to this case described how she discovered that the story the NGO presented was linked to a photo of an infant who had died in Poland.

In another planned campaign for a sick child, Firinidis tells the father that a different name and different photos will be used. His wife, who is also a defendant, coaches the father on how to answer any questions and tells him that pictures of a child they found online will be posted. She also tells the father not to mention the fake details to the NGO’s associates, claiming they did not want to help his child.

Both NGO president Konstantinos Firinidis and his wife, in conversations with citizens, parents of the children and other members or associates, as well as in the vast majority of their social media posts, stated that the NGO helped only one child per campaign. They also explicitly said that all its members were volunteers who received no income of any kind for their work. This had nothing to do with reality, as it emerged that they were embezzling huge sums for their own comfort.

“We’re the ones in charge”

The NGO also claimed that after each child’s campaign, it published a detailed financial report and publicly explained how the money was used, attaching receipts, for full transparency. However, neither the review of its social media posts nor the rest of the material collected in the preliminary investigation showed that this ever happened.

A father of a sick child who spoke to tanea.gr said that when he asked why the fundraiser for his son was being stopped, the NGO’s head presented him with a fake bank statement. “I asked him why he was stopping the fundraiser and asked for it to continue. He threatened me and told me, ‘We’re the ones in charge, if you want to see any money.’”

The father kept trying to get the money raised for his son until July 2023, sending messages to the NGO’s president. “It got to the point where he would answer me once every 2 or 3 months. He told me to be patient. The money had gone into his personal account, and now I find out it was more than 73,000 euros.”

Hospitals never saw a cent

When the association first started operating, its activities also included collecting food and basic necessities, a “showcase” of charity work that was quickly set aside. Donations to hospitals proved minimal to nonexistent. Although the NGO pledged that part of the donations would go as financial support to hospitals, the investigation showed this never happened.

The excuses for missing receipts

The excuses, however, had an expiration date. One conversation with a donor who repeatedly asked for a receipt for the money he had deposited is revealing.

Trying to buy time, the head of the organization claimed he had spent four days in a clinic and promised to sort it out immediately. As the delay dragged on, the donor openly expressed his doubts, asking for the document so he could claim the donation on his taxes. According to the investigation, the “hospital stay” turned out to be just another trick to avoid sending the receipt.