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14 people associated with the "Circle of Patmos" non-governmental organization (NGO) were arrested on charges of misappropriation of public funds and money laundering. According to the data presented by the police, the specific NGO had received donations amounting to 9.5 million euro in the period 2000-2010 and revenues of just 6.5 million euro had been recorded in its accounting books.

The main objective of the "Circle of Patmos" - officially - was to develop religious culture and raise awareness of environmental issues and it funded various forums held at sea. Events funded by the European Union and the Greek state included: "Danube" (1997), "Adriatic" (2002), "Baltic" (2003), "Amazon" (2006), "Arctic" (2007), "Mississippi" (2009). The floating symposia "Caspian Sea" (2005) and "Nile" (2009) were repealed.

For one of these cruise forums, an icebreaker was rented for 600 thousand euro to transport the symposium participants to the North Pole. According to To Vima newspaper, senior clerics from around the world as well as politicians and activists such as Al Gore and former Secretary General Kofi Annan attended these extravagant gatherings. Members of the NGO insist before the same edition that the activity of the "Circle of Patmos" was of high religious and national significance and no one could speak either about corruption or about speculation.

The Ministry of Environment and Energy gave the "Circle of Patmos" 1.2 million euro. The state lottery OPAP granted 1.2 million euro over the years, the National Assembly funded the organization with 300 thousand euro and the Ministry of Culture gave 60 thousand euro. Currently, the police are inspecting 88 reports on the activity of the specific organization that describe the flow of its capital. Police sources comment that large amounts of money used for personal gain were embezzled through the "organization of symposia."

The NGOs scandal flared up in Greece over a year ago, when everyday life began to feel the effect of the economic crisis more strongly. According to zougla.gr, more than 39 million euro sank into the hands of about 700 NGOs in the period 2007-2009 alone.

Governmental organizations and European funds donated for various and often obscure causes – 25 thousand euro was given for the study of the history of the youth movement of the left wing, "Greek modelling" received another 25 thousand euro to develop their activities, "Citizens of tomorrow action" received 50 thousand for its unspecified activities. The wireless network of the Corinth bishopric was also funded with 25 thousand euro. NGOs with names like "Actions for the man," "Arcadian youth 2000," "Specialized institute to establish the quality of citruses in Trianisos" received the same amount as well.
 
The list of NGOs in Greece that register a business and receive grants without reporting on their activities includes hundreds of names. Some of the biggest violations, according to local media, were made in the employment and retraining programmes, which were managed by the government, but carried out with the active participation of NGOs. The programmes, into which the largest amounts of money were sunk, were carried out in 2006 and 2007. The condition for the grants was to open at least one new job if the state covered all the costs of hiring new staff.

Among the NGOs that participated in the two programmes were those of Margarita Papandreou. The "Centre for Research and Action on Peace" was funded by the state twice with 90 thousand and 25 thousand euro, whereas the Andreas Papandreou Institute for Strategic and Development Studies received 125 thousand euro from the same programmes.