ATHENS — Greek government ministers and senior officials are suspected of colluding in a massive farm aid scam to defraud the European Union of hundreds of millions of euros.

But despite being named as suspects by European prosecutors, they are likely to evade justice because Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is blocking a full-scale investigation.

“Greece in 2025 does not need scandal-mongering, but truths,” Mitsotakis told parliament last week, in an effort to justify that decision. “We seek a definitive solution to the problem.”

The case offers damning evidence that — after three bailouts and a financial crisis that lasted over a decade — Greece still hasn’t cleared out the rot.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) pursued dozens of cases in which Greeks received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. POLITICO first reported on the scheme in February.

A 3,000-page dossier sent to the Greek parliament includes dozens of wiretap transcripts in which people apparently discuss how to evade controls on payouts of EU farm subsidies so that party allies and friends could profit.

At least five current or former ministers and another 10 MPs could be implicated, according to the transcripts.

The message from the conversations is clear: We must protect and pay our own people; the inspectors in the state agency that handles the EU payments have to go; and we need to thwart the investigating prosecutors.

The Mitsotakis government — thanks to the majority enjoyed by his center-right New Democracy party and a legal quirk that only allows the Greek parliament to prosecute government ministers — has chosen not to investigate its own people.

Illegal aid

The EPPO dossier describes a “criminal organization” comprising officials from Greece’s agency for distributing EU subsidies, OPEKEPE, along with individuals and MPs who illegally received EU agricultural subsidies, according to officials who have viewed it.

In a 36-page note in English attached to the file, EPPO states that officials at OPEKEPE and the Agriculture Ministry, together with people in business, “acted in an organized manner in order to establish a system of non-controls and obtain or facilitate the receipt of illegal aid.”

“The extent of this fabrication of payment entitlements and the total damage to EU funds has not yet been fully assessed,” EPPO notes. “Nevertheless, at this state of play of the investigation, there are reasonable grounds to believe that it has been a large-scale scheme.”

Even though the extent of damages has not been assessed, Brussels has ordered Greece to forfeit nearly €400 million in funding — over a fifth of the direct payments it had been due to receive next year.

EPPO said two former agriculture ministers — Lefteris Avgenakis and Makis Voridis, who later served as state minister reporting directly to the prime minister — should face further legal investigation over the suspected misappropriation of EU funds. They both reject the claims.

According to the dossier, the then-president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, described the problem with the fake pastureland in two letters to Voridis in 2020. He was forced to resign by Voridis, who remained in government until this June when he too resigned after the EPPO submitted its dossier to parliament.

In a conversation on Sept. 24, 2021 between another former president of OPEKEPE, Dimitris Melas, and a businessman in the sector, Melas describes how people had declared pastures so remote and rocky that they were effectively “at the shores of Normandy” where “not only grazing is impossible, but cockroaches can’t even survive.” They go on to say that 800 such “beneficiaries” had made similar applications.

EPPO says: “From the conversation it is evident that although the president of OPEKEPE is aware of the fraud, he is not willing to take the legal measures for the withdrawal of the support, but he is trying to find a ‘political’ management of the problem and is willing to give the perpetrators advice in order to keep the money unduly received.”

Melas disputes that account. “The reality is completely opposite to what is described. I don’t know if this is due to poor quality of the connection or wrong description,” he told POLITICO. He said that he was describing a wrong practice that he noticed being employed by farmers whose payments were eventually blocked.

Melas is currently on trial for misappropriation of a document and breach of duty. He denies any wrongdoing and says he has never in his career felt the need to hide any documents.

Political pressure

A separate note by another former OPEKEPE president, Evangelos Simandrakos, is also part of the EPPO file.

He blocked thousands of suspect payments because they needed further investigation. He was soon kicked out by Avgenakis, then agriculture minister.

In a note sent on Nov. 4, 2023, to the state minister and chief of staff to the prime minister, obtained by POLITICO, Simandrakos described why he decided to block the more than 9,000 payments. He warns that OPEKEPE is already under investigation and might soon lose its accreditation from the European Commission. Simandrakos says he is determined to stay on at OPEKEPE despite pressure from Avgenakis to resign.

He then had a meeting with the three state ministers under the prime minister, who, as he describes, supported his choice not to resign. In a second letter on Dec. 8, 2023, he describes public attacks against him by Avgenakis and how this has drawn the attention of the European investigators. Weeks later, at a meeting on Dec. 28, 2023, the same people asked for his resignation.

“Unable to withstand the political pressure, I submitted my resignation and was forced to leave the organization,” Simandrakos said in his testimony to EPPO.

Avgenakis kept his ministerial post and all the blocked accounts were released for payment.

On Feb. 2, 2024 Mitsotakis told parliament that all farmers would be paid by OPEKEPE by April.

“Everyone knew, Mr. Mitsotakis himself knew,” New Left leader Alexis Charitsis said in parliament. “It’s a pyramid of corruption that has only one person at its top ― Mitsotakis.”

Cold coffee

A typical example is the case of Giorgos Xylouris, a farmer from Crete and member of New Democracy who is mentioned in the EPPO case file under the nickname “Frappé” (“Iced Coffee”).

Mitsotakis’ late father, former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, was best man at the wedding of Xylouris’ brother, according to local media. A dinner after the annual memorial service for Mitsotakis’ father was held at Xylouris’ restaurant.

Xylouris has also been photographed with the Greek prime minister at meetings in Crete. And high-ranking New Democracy officials dined at his family’s home, during campaigning for last year’s European elections.

“Xylouris and members of his family had been included in several complaints, according to which they declared excessive and false numbers of animals, as well as eligible areas outside of Crete, on the islands of Chios and Paros,” the file describes.

However, when his payments were blocked by Simandrakos, both OPEKEPE Vice-President Kyriakos Babasidis and Agriculture Ministry Secretary General Giorgos Stratakos insisted that members of his family be paid.

The blocked Taxpayer Identification Numbers of the family were not paid in 2024, following an information note (Nov. 30, 2023) from OPEKEPE inspector Paraskevi Tycheropoulou, who blew the whistle on the apparent scam. Xylouris claimed that Babasidis had told him that he could not be paid, “if Tycheropoulou does not swallow the information note.”

In intercepted communications, Xylouris appears to hold Tycheropoulou responsible for the inspections against him, EPPO describes. He tells Stratakos that his family could be forced to return €200,000. He asks Stratakos if “they did something about the Tycheropoulou issue” — apparently implying steps to remove her from her job at OPEKEPE.

In another discussion with the ministry’s secretary general, Xylouris complains about the payments and says — seemingly light-heartedly — that if he had killed Tycheropoulou he would have paid a good lawyer, be out of prison and be better off. He also expresses interest in replacing a European delegated prosecutor from the Athens EPPO office.

Responding to these findings, Xylouris has said that he never asked to unblock the payments, he knew he was under surveillance and the conversations have been edited.

“I’m not in a position to arrange to replace the prosecutor. If I had such a possibility, I would have asked to be paid and not to be held hostage for three years by audits,” he told Parapolitika radio.

Witness intimidation

Pressure on key witnesses who exposed the scam continues unabated.

In 2020, an OPEKEPE employee from Crete was one of the first to notice the irregularities and inform the organization’s general manager.

Internal documents  obtained by POLITICO describe threats made against him and his children. This employee sought protection from the judicial authorities — but OPEKEPE responded with disciplinary action and a two-month salary suspension.

Tycheropoulou, the OPEKEPE auditor, already faces three disciplinary actions and two lawsuits. Her files and computer have been confiscated, while her locker was broken into. Despite the publicity, earlier this month she received a note on salary suspension for 15 days on charges of “violating confidentiality obligations” and “conduct unbecoming of a public employee within OPEKEPE.”

EPPO requested her secondment but this was not approved by current Agriculture Minister Kostas Tsiaras. Eventually, “the EPPO saw itself forced to withdraw the request for the secondment of an OPEKEPE employee, as it awaits the outcome of some ongoing external proceedings,” EPPO spokesperson Tine Hollevoet told POLITICO.

No day in court

The EPPO case file was sent to parliament because, due to a peculiarity of Greek law, only it has the authority to investigate and refer to justice crimes committed by ministers.

The ruling New Democracy party has, however, repeatedly rejected calls by the EU prosecutors to take action against its own ministers. Instead of focusing on the pastureland scam, it wielded its majority to set up a parliamentary inquiry to look into the whole history of the management of agricultural funds since 1998, when the idea of establishing OPEKEPE was conceived.

EPPO notes in its file that the statute of limitations for alleged crimes conducted by former Agriculture Minister Voridis expires in October.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has argued that, under the Greek constitution, EPPO has no right to pass judgment on Voridis or Avgenakis, but can only suggest that the parliament investigates possible liabilities.

“Who has the majority in parliament? New Democracy. What has New Democracy decided? That they don’t want them to be investigated. Period,” he told Action 24 TV station.

For Nikos Androulakis, leader of the main opposition Pasok party, the government’s line “insults the intelligence of the Greek people, who will be asked to pay the fine.”

“Our country and the Greek people do not deserve a weak prime minister blackmailed by his own ministers,” said Androulakis. “As a result he gives Voridis the gift of the statute of limitations and Avgenakis the gift of amnesty.”

‘We failed’

Pasok and a joint bloc of left-parties Syriza and the New Left have submitted two proposals to launch a parliamentary commission of inquiry that would explore possible felony charges against the former ministers based on EPPO’s case file. Amid chaotic scenes, these motions were defeated — with a boycott by the opposition parties that sponsored the motions failing to deprive the parliament of a quorum.

Speaking in parliament on July 30, Voridis said that, based on his actions as minister, “there can be no criminal offense” and described the opposition’s proposals as “manifestly unfounded.”

In the same parliamentary session, Avgenakis said the opposition’s proposals to investigate him were “legally flawed.”

The prime minister is not in total denial, however.

“We failed,” Mitsotakis admitted, referring to the scandal in a Facebook post in late June. “As it turns out, the enduring weaknesses of OPEKEPE allowed for clientelist practices, unfortunately, even from within our own party.”

He also promised that those who received European funds without being entitled to them will be required to return the money. The government says that inspections have started and the Organized Crime Directorate could soon begin asset seizures.

However, it is clear that the government only decided to act after the scandal blew up. It announced that it will shut down OPEKEPE by the end of 2026, while all checks and payments will be conducted via the Independent Authority for Public Revenues (AADE).

This happened only after EPPO delegated prosecutors stormed the OPEKEPE headquarters and its top prosecutor Laura Kövesi accused officials of physically obstructing the investigation.

In the meantime, apart from another president who was forced to resign — the sixth in six years — other OPEKEPE officials implicated in the scheme remain in post and will continue to oversee farm payments this year and next. As EPPO notes in the dossier: “The same group of suspects could possibly seek to continue unhindered their activities.”