He betrayed himself. On the morning of December 27, as soon as undercover officers detained a woman at a coffee shop on Alexandra Avenue after receiving banknotes with pre-marked characters, an unknown visitor who was watching the scene ran to hide. He didn’t get far. He was arrested, brought in, he revealed everything. His testimony became a link between a real estate agent, an elderly lawyer and a temporary prisoner in Korydallos prisons with a fictitious real estate sale.

The methods allegedly used by those involved, using forged documents and falsely citing health problems to justify low sale prices and lure potential buyers, may seem simplistic, but they are often found in similar cases handled by the police. And apparently they are enough to mislead. In a similar case that will go to court in the coming months, another scheme allegedly raised money in a name that matched a mentally ill nursing home patient to cover their tracks.

It was June 2022 when a Greek businessman, permanent resident of the United States, active in the real estate market, learned about an investment opportunity in Glyfada: a plot of land with a sale price of one million euros, four minutes from the sea. In search of a seller, he contacted a 56-year-old woman who, although she was a realtor, allegedly presented herself as a lawyer and claimed to represent the real owner. In order to convince him, he also sent him a copy of a fake, as it turned out later, power of attorney, which was drawn up on May 24, 2022 and, it seems, was recognized as a genuine signature by the traffic police service center. Municipality of Vari – Voula – Vouliagmeni. The businessman was misled, signed a private purchase agreement and sent an advance payment of 10,000 euros. Before signing the final contract, potential buyers of other properties informed him that they had been scammed by the same scheme.

In cooperation with the property rights division of the Attica Security Authority, the appointment of the 56-year-old broker was made last month under the guise of signing an extension of the agreement. As soon as she received another 10,000 euros in pre-marked banknotes, she was arrested. A cafe patron who watched the rally and tried to escape later told police that the leader of the gang was a man arrested for a similar offense in January 2022. According to his testimony, he entrusted him with the sale of two plots of land in Glyfada because he ended up in prison before he could complete the process.

The two cases that were resolved concerned real estate in Glyfada and Kifisia.

However, it appears that he took some initial reconnaissance steps back in October 2021 that would have helped in planning the scam. At that time, he introduced himself as a potential buyer of an 825 sq.m. in Glyfada. He saw the property and was able to collect enough information about it and its owner, various documents, urban planning data, ENFIA certificates. When a new, real buyer showed up a few months later and was looking for the owner of the site, the 56-year-old realtor introduced herself as a confidant. According to the police investigation, he managed to get 15,000 euros as an advance. As with other properties in Glyfada, the money was transferred to the account of an elderly lawyer with a previous conviction in a similar case. However, the fraud did not continue. The buyer at some point managed to contact the real owner, and the error was detected in time. “Fortunately, the disputed sales were not completed, since in this case the property damage to the victims would be very large, given that the law does not recognize ownership of those who buy from a non-owner. when it comes to real estate,” says lawyer Christina Stasinopoulou, who represents the interests of a US businessman in the Glyfada case, in K. As she points out, a few years ago, defrauded buyers of land in Adames Kifissia suffered losses of more than one million euros, and she considered this case in court as a civil lawsuit. “Extreme care is required of any interested buyer when verifying title deeds, identification details, authenticity of powers of attorney prior to a real estate purchase agreement,” he adds.

The case of Kifisia is to be considered in April at the second instance. In 2017, the Athens Tripartite Criminal Court of Appeal sentenced two gang members to 11 and 14 years in prison, respectively. According to the circumstances of the case known to K, they managed to sell at least three land plots, presenting fake powers of attorney from representatives of the real owners. In fact, in one case, according to an investigation by the investigating authorities, they cashed a check for tens of thousands of euros with information that matched an Alzheimer’s patient who was permanently confined to a wheelchair. In the same name, they received a mobile phone number that they used to contact potential victims. In an apology to the trial court, they shifted the blame. One admitted his involvement in two illegal sales and cited his debts as the reason. The other, who had previously been hired by police to smuggle migrants, denied being the ringleader and claimed to have acted as a subordinate to his co-defendant.

Not having time to understand what happened, the buyers, misled by two men, and possibly their unknown accomplices, sold the lots to other unsuspecting citizens, thereby expanding the circle of deceived. In one case, the last buyer received permission to build a house. Until the second day of work, the real owner did not show up. “How are you;” he said. “This lot belongs to me.”