Greece Arrests 22 Suspects Over EU Farming Fraud Scheme

Suspects arrested in the agricultural subsidy fraud case are escorted to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), in Athens, 23 October 2025. Greek police on Tuesday said they have dismantled a criminal organisation that illegally received aid from the Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aids, OPEKEPE, the Greek state agency that oversaw the allocation of European farming subsidies, using false statements. A police operation on May 25 in various areas of Attica

“A case has been opened against them – on a case-by-case basis – for the establishment of a criminal organisation, fraud related to subsidies, false declaration, as well as money laundering,” police said on Tuesday morning. It is estimated that from 2019 to 2024, the damage caused to the EU and the Greek State amounts to at least 2,733,995 euros, without including financial subsidies received in 2025. The months-long police investigation revealed that the criminal organisation had been created in 2019 and its members had distinct roles. The police report that the suspected “leaders” were two accountants who knew the procedure for submitting aid applications to OPEKEPE and the gaps in the system. They recruited owners and managers of Declaration Reception Centres who identified eligible “free land” that had not been declared by the real owners. Subsequently, people falsely appeared as lessors or tenants of these plots of land. Through this scheme, non-existent leases of plots of land appeared and illegally obtained EU agricultural aid. Greek media report that the arrested will appear before the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, EPPO, in Athens on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a court in Serres, northern Greece, on May 25 found 13 out of 25 people guilty of fraud, complicity in fraud, false declaration, and instigation of false declaration for illegal subsidies totaling 250,000 euros they received from OPEKEPE between 2016 and 2018. The court imposed sentences of five to 26 months, suspended for three years. Initially, 32 people were brought to trial but seven of the defendants entered into a criminal negotiation, returning the money they had wrongly received as a subsidy.

Key points

• “A case has been opened against them – on a case-by-case basis – for the establishment of a criminal organisation, fraud related to subsidies, false declaration, as well as money laundering,” polic…
• It is estimated that from 2019 to 2024, the damage caused to the EU and the Greek State amounts to at least 2,733,995 euros, without including financial subsidies received in 2025.
• The months-long police investigation revealed that the criminal organisation had been created in 2019 and its members had distinct roles.
• The police report that the suspected “leaders” were two accountants who knew the procedure for submitting aid applications to OPEKEPE and the gaps in the system.
• They recruited owners and managers of Declaration Reception Centres who identified eligible “free land” that had not been declared by the real owners.