Loans through Abu Dhabi promised a 50-year-old protected witness in Novartis case and two of his accomplices arrested by the security police for fraud and money laundering. They were arrested on Tuesday, and yesterday the prosecutor opened a criminal case against them. They have been given a deadline and are expected to apologize to the investigator on Saturday.

How police officers describe the central figure of the scam 50 year old witness in the Novartis case known as codename “Maximos Sarafis”. He appeared as a business consultant, manager of a company based on Panepistimi street in the center of Athens. Through his social and professional circle, he identified businessmen who could not get loans from domestic banks and deceived them.

He pretended to represent a non-existent company based in Greece. United Arab Emiratestrading as Zahrat Commercial Brokers LLC. To add credibility to the scam, he presented two of his accomplices as purportedly Emirates experts. These are two men aged 62 and 65. They told their victims that they previously lived in the Emirates and worked for the defunct Zahrat Commercial Brokers LLC. Thanks to this experience, they pretended that they could broker immediate loans, while forging the documents of a criminal organization. Moreover, fake seals, signature impressions, etc. were found on them.

The profit of the organization was the remuneration “Maximos Sarafis” for preparing and applying for a loan, insuring the proposed loan, as well as the estimated taxes that they had to pay to the authorities of the Emirates.

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In order to mislead their victims, they set up front UAE-based insurance companies (eg Gotrans Technical Services, Capital Gate Technical Services, etc.) into whose bank accounts they invited their victims to deposit money. In the event that their victims suspected that they had been deceived, the defendants allegedly held conferences with alleged Zahrat leaders or showed videos of the perpetrators in the company of alleged Zahrat leaders.

During the first phase of the investigation, the authorities identified seven victims from whom the perpetrators took a total of 800,000 euros. We are talking about the owner of a hotel in the center of Athens, a cheese merchant, as well as entrepreneurs in the field of catering and tourism. It is estimated that the number of victims of Maximo Sarafi and his accomplices is much higher. In addition, during searches in the offices and homes of the accused, documents were found that indicated the trade names of another 15 companies.

However, through lawyer Konstantinos Gogos, he denies the allegations and claims to be the victim of a political conflict between New Democracy and SYRIZA because of his involvement in the Novartis case.

The case also involves an Indian citizen, as well as two other people, whose identity has not been established.