OPEKEPE scandal: under the microscope of the European Public Prosecutor's Office Voridis and Avgenakis

Document included in the European Public Prosecutor's file on the OPEC which was transmitted to the Parliament records the criminal evaluation of two former ministers of the Southwest, Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis. According to the «News.», the prosecution proposal explicitly states that the two former ministers are allegedly related to the offences of aiding and abetting fraud against the EU's financial interests, committed jointly and repeatedly, with a loss of more than EUR 120.000, and of instigating fraud against the financial interests of the EU, committed jointly and repeatedly, with a loss of more than EUR 120.000.

This report is included in the 36-page transmittal of the EPPO and the proposal of the European Public Prosecutors' Representatives is taken into account, Eugenia Kyvelou and Eleni Siskou. As noted in the publication, while prosecutors do not criminally evaluate ministers and former ministers -in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 86 of the Constitution on the responsibility of ministers- the European prosecutors proceeded to a criminal assessment applying both Community law and the EPPO's Internal Rules of Procedure.

According to what is stated in the prosecutor's proposal with the evidence of the investigation: «for the period 2019-2024, members of the Board of Directors and executives of OPEKEPE acted in coordination with officials of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, representatives of the Declaration Reception Centres (RRCs) and applicants for aid under the Basic Aid Scheme, in order to 1) artificially fulfilling the conditions to obtain benefits under the CAP, notably by allocating payment entitlements from the national reserve through false declarations of animal numbers or areas allocated on the basis of the “technical solution” 2) prevent effective control in relation to the detection and investigation of cases of fraud, whether they originated from complaints or from the extraction of sample checks; 3) secure payments to claimants who did not meet the legal requirements; and 4) prevent the recovery of amounts unduly paid and the institution of legal proceedings to that end».

At the same time, the prosecutors make reference to the testimonies of the two former presidents of OPEKEPE, Evangelos Simandrakou and Gregory Varras. Elsewhere it is stated that these actions: «were facilitated in various ways: by limiting the powers of auditors through amendments to circulars on administrative and other controls, by preventing the introduction of effective detection and control methods, by targeting officials who detected circumventions of EU and national legislation through disciplinary and criminal proceedings, by making the OPEKEPE fully dependent on the services of the technical adviser, who placed every administration of the Agency under immediate and constant threat of failure to make timely and correct payments. Also, the fact that the heads of the Directorates and Departments remained the same for many years, combined with the structure of the OPEKEPE, allowed them to go unnoticed when they misbehaved and created further dependence on inexperienced administrations. Moreover, the replacement of Gregory Varras and later Evangelos Simandrakos proved to have contributed to the maintenance of the system's pathologies.».

Finally, the prosecution proposal concludes with an explicit reference to the Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis:

«Considering that, in the course of this investigation, evidence has emerged of offences of (i) aiding and abetting an abuse of the financial interests of the European Union and (ii) instigating an abuse of the financial interests of the European Union [Article 22(1) of the EPPO Regulation, 5(1), 4(3) and 4b of Directive (EU) 2017/1371], which fall under national law as:

(a) Aiding and abetting fraud against the financial interests of the European Union, committed jointly and repeatedly, causing more than EUR 120 000 in damages.

(b) Incitement to commit fraud against the EU's financial interests, committed jointly and repeatedly, causing more than EUR 120 000 in damages. [Articles 26a, 27, 46(1), 47, 94, 98, 390(1)(b-a) of the Criminal Code and 24(4), 26(1)(3) of Law 4689/2020].

These offences are allegedly related to:

(a) The Maki Boris, Minister for Rural Development and Food from 09/07/2019 to 05/01/2021
(b) The Eleftherios Avgenakis, Minister for Rural Development and Food from 27/06/2023 to 14/06/2024».