The prosecutor’s office initiated criminal cases in the degree of a grave and administrative offense against entrepreneurs detained and involved in fraud, among which are “Maximos Sarafis”protected witness in Novartis case.

In total, the charge is directed against seven people: three arrested and four more who are wanted.

The charges relate to crimes related to the creation of a criminal organization, fraud, forgery of documents and money laundering.

The case was referred to the investigator.

How did the organization work?

As it turned out as a result of the investigation, the above persons, having jointly decided to commit misconduct and crimes, united and formed a criminal organization with continuous, structured and separate roles, and in order to obtain illegal income, for more than two years they committed criminal machinations and forgeries at the expense of entrepreneurs.

In particular, they collected money from each of their clients as “registration fees” but never applied for a loan. In this way, they deceived at least 8 people, depriving them of a total of 600,000 euros. Officer EL.AS. Those who were asked about this were specified that the victims are mainly entrepreneurs working in the field of tourism and catering. The amount claimed by the defendants as estimated legal costs varied depending on the amount of the loan and the financial situation of the victims and ranged from EUR 5,000 to EUR 50,000.

According to the information, among the victims there is the owner of a famous hotel in Athens, a cheese merchant, a fish farming company, a tourism company and an accounting department.

In more detail, a protected witness in the Novartis case allegedly played a leading role in the actions of the criminal organization.

Due to the breadth of his social and professional circle, he looked for potential borrowers, usually business owners, who did not have credit guarantees from local financial institutions. Then, taking advantage of their dire financial situation or their need for immediate business development, he presented as an alternative solution their lending directly to the banking institutions of the United Arab Emirates or through a non-existent company, of which he represented. representative in our country.

The other two arrested turned out to be accomplices of the main member and are aware of the special conditions of financial transactions in the United Arab Emirates and especially of a defunct company. One of them, in fact, to strengthen the image of authority, claimed that he had lived in the country for several years or that his wife worked in the said non-existent company, respectively, taking on the role of an intermediary, ready to provide solutions to any problem that arose.

He also played an important role in the forgery of documents used by the criminal organization, as the seals of companies and individuals, a stamp matrix with Greek and Latin letters, signature prints, various prints of company logos were found on him. and signatures of managers, seals of companies and signatures of their leaders, pasted on stickers in A4 format, etc.

Of the co-defendants, three foreigners acted as managers of a non-existent company and reassured the victims in case of doubts about the legality of the process, and the fourth co-defendant managed the bank accounts in which the victims’ money turned out.

It is worth noting that in addition to the non-existent company, and in order to make the whole project seem even more plausible, the members of the organization also established insurance companies in the United Arab Emirates, in whose bank accounts the victims deposited amounts of money related to the costs of the loan.

The whole process took place at the direction of the leader and his accomplices, who, at various stages of their criminal activities, delivered fake documents, documents and certificates to their victims, which convinced them of the validity and legality of their activities.

As a result of the searches, the following were discovered and seized:

• 500 Euro.
• Five laptops, mobile phones, printer and tablet.
• Stamp plate/stamp consisting of individual numbers, Greek letters, punctuation marks and symbols.
• Manual seals and seal impression.
• Documents with samples of signatures and seals.
• Documents with affixed pieces of paper with signatures and seals.
• Printed emails.
• Documents relating to a non-existent company, handwritten notes and various contracts between individuals or legal entities.