In official reports on the liquidation of a criminal organization, members of which deceived entrepreneurs under the guise of mediation in the payment of loansEL.AS continued.

Three people were arrested in the case, including “Maximos Sarafis”, a protected witness in the Novartis case.

A criminal case has been initiated against three arrested members of the organization, as well as against four other people, on the fact of committing a criminal organization, money laundering, fraud and forgery and an attempt to commit and bring to an end.

As it turned out as a result of the investigation, the above persons, having jointly decided to commit misdemeanors and crimes, united and formed a criminal organization with continuous, structured and separate roles and, in order to obtain illegal income, committed criminal machinations and forgeries for more than two years in the burden 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, receiving a total of 600,000 euros from them. 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.

In more detail, a leading role in the activities of a criminal organization was occupied by an arrested participant with a long professional experience, as a consultant on business, marketing, investment, etc.

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. In fact, one of them, in order to strengthen the image of authority, claimed that he had lived in the country for a number of years or that his wife worked for the non-existent company in question, respectively, taking on the role of an intermediary, ready to provide solutions to any the problem that has arisen.

He also played an important role in the forgery of documents used by the criminal organization, as he was found to have seals of companies and individuals, a stamp matrix with removable Greek and Latin letters, signature prints, various prints of company logos and signatures of executives, leaflets of seals of enterprises and signatures of their leaders pasted on A4 stickers, 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, a printer and a tablet,
• a stamp/matrix consisting of individual numbers, Greek letters, punctuation marks and symbols,
• hand stamps and stamp impressions,
• 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.

The detainees were taken to the competent prosecutor’s office, while investigative actions are ongoing to clarify the full extent of their criminal activities.