Galery

1

The Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE) carried out surprise raids throughout the past month in Piraeus and Athens. The results show the primary role tax evasion plays in Greek society.

The inspectors targeted restaurant owners, lawyers, sports federations and even jobless individuals, who dodged taxes worth millions of euro.

Here is a typical case: a restaurant owner who forgot to pay her taxes amounting to €342,000 for the period 2005-2011. The same forgetfulness held in its grip a Piraeus company staff member: from 2005 through 2012 he failed to disclose more than €1.5 million before the tax authorities.

The lawyer A.K., whose office is located near the biggest port in the country, has hidden from the taxman €605,000 over the period 2000-2010. According to zougla.gr, he will be fined by the same amount.

The same footpath was followed by another lawyer who had an office in Athens. Between 2000 and 2011 he failed to mention before inland revenue earnings in excess of €1 million.

Unemployed and undisclosed 

Some jobless individuals have drawn special interest on behalf of the services. The SDOE investigation found they owned properties the value of which was entirely out of kilter with their officially declared situation.

One of them, living in Paleo Faliro, paraded unemployment and zero income. But over the investigated period he received earnings in excess of €300,000, a fact he failed to share with the tax office.

An unemployed woman from Athens also found herself ensnared by the inspectors for having received donations amounting to €286,000, which she never officially declared.

A financier and his €2.8 million

SDOE also put the noose over the neck of a well-known financier, with an office in the centre of Athens.

The check found that he, along with his son, had hidden away about €2.8 million in the period 2000-2007. Now he will have to cough up the same amount as a fine.

In his expert capacity, he used to frequent various media and give advice on how people could better manage their funds or overcome poverty.

False invoices for € 150 million

There have been many cases of fraudulent invoicing, with Thessaloniki turning out as the hub of these activities.

This is what, inter alia, the inspectors found there:

•  the bosses of a security firm forged invoices for €408,000;
• a sports union issued false invoices for € 410,000;
• a food company received fake invoices amounting to €962,000.

As far as Athens is concerned, SDOE officers hunted down an owner of a printing and advertising company who issued 636 false invoices for a total of €3.3 million.

A cell phone retailer was also targeted for having produced 535 forged settlement records over the period 2007-2011. Their overall value surpassed €150 million.