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Operation "Handcuffs" against the big debtors to the state and tax evaders, is in full swing. Within less than one month the Economic Police and the Economic Crimes Control Service have put "handcuffs" on 14 businessmen in Athens and Thessaloniki, including many well known individuals from business circles such as George Petzetakis, owner of the largest Greek company producer of plastic pipes, Leon Levy, owner of the chain of weight loss centres, Bodyline, and Nikolaos Dzivanakis, owner of the hairdressing salons chain Nicolas Coiffure.

Neither of the detainees was sent to prison because they will pay part of the amounts due and have proceeded to an agreement. The next "hit", which the control authorities are preparing is against those who have withdrawn their deposits from Greek banks and transferred them abroad. The names of well known individuals are among the data collected by the Ministry of Finance from the banks.

According to sources, the list includes the names of famous doctors, lawyers, businessmen, bankers, people who are active in the media, but also people from politics. The Deputy Prime minister and Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos commented on the list: "Many will be surprised because we are talking about people who “wag their fingers”, but in practice do not support the Greek banking system, as they have withdrawn their money from it and have thus reduced its liquidity."

Those who have transferred their deposits abroad, who can prove them with their income and pay regular taxes on interest on their deposits, will have no problem. Based on the principle of free movement of capital they can invest their money in a bank abroad, as long as they continue to pay taxes on the interest they receive. According to estimates, the capital of Greek citizens located in banks abroad amounts to over 200 billion.

The only people who will have problems with the tax authorities are those who cannot prove with their income, the money they have deposited in banks abroad. These taxpayers are threatened by seizure of their deposits as the Ministry of Finance, in an effort to collect the due taxes, intends to apply the provisions of the law on money laundering. Senior officials in the ministry are talking about upcoming fast track arrests and prosecution of businessmen and individuals who have been proven to have committed tax crimes.

Deposits of unexplained origin

According to information, the Economic Crimes Control Service has already made the first arrests of taxpayers who have large deposits, but cannot prove the origin of their capital. Under current legislation, fast track procedure is triggered when non-payment of income tax in excess of € 150,000 has been determined.

The Economic Crimes Control Service has a list of 1,000 taxpayers who have bank accounts with hundreds of thousands of euros. Many of these 1000 persons were invited by the control authorities of the Ministry of Finance to pay the respective taxes. It is noted that those who cannot prove the origin of the money in their accounts will be charged with a tax based on the tax bracket for the income tax and with a tax rate of up to 45%.

"The whole mechanism is fully activated and in the near future you will witness some unseen things and situations," says a senior official from the Ministry of Finance.

Now they are coming forward voluntarily

Officials working in the Economic Crimes Control Service note that operation "handcuffs" has started to create a climate of fiscal discipline, stressing that there are many cases in which businessmen and traders come voluntarily to the tax authorities to pay overdue tax liabilities, while others reach an agreement with the authorities for the payment of fines imposed for tax evasion.

Relentless pursuers of tax dodgers:

Tax terrorists

Former Deputy Prosecutor Ioannis Diotis was called several months ago to undertake the management of the Economic Crimes Control Service. The pursuer of terrorism in Greece was reintroduced, because everyone knows that he will do everything possible to bring his new mission to a successful conclusion: the pursuit of a different kind of terrorism, that of economic crimes. Fighting tax evasion and especially severe economic violations, such as money laundering, fraud, illegal financial transactions, fraud to the detriment of the country, all these problems are the responsibility of the Economic Crimes Control Service, which cooperates with the economic police and the economic prosecution.

Ioannis Diotis became known for the neutralization of the terrorist organization "November 17", but also for the cases which he led such as the one against the group "ELA" (Revolutionary Popular Struggle), and the investigation of the death of Costas Tsalikidis on March 9^th, 2005 related to the scandal of wiretappings. In the summer of 2002, along with Michalis Chrysohoidis and Fotis Nasiakos he reaped the fruits of his efforts by arresting the members of the terrorist group "November 17".

Economic Police

A few months ago something happened that is quite natural for other countries: the creation of the Prosecution of Economic Crime and an Economic Police. Appointed to the position of prosecutor was current deputy appeal prosecutor, Grigoris Peponis, and Brigadier General Nikolaos Markku was appointed head of the economic police. Employees of the economic police are not just random police officers. They have a masters degree and have knowledge of financial issues, issues related to banking and tax applications, accounting, information technology, digital evidence examination, as well as telecommunications and networks, computers. Once Grigoris Peponis received the list of tax evaders, he launched the operation "Handcuffs," which is now in full swing.