The two massive case files for the OPEKEPE affair that were transmitted to Parliament by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office are in the spotlight. The first relates to two former government members (Spilios Libanos – Fotini Arampatzi) and reached Parliament under Article 86. The second, targeting 11 “blue” MPs, includes a clear separation of cases.
OPEKEPE: The Papakosta case and the “non-existent cattle”
In the spotlight is Trikala MP Katerina Papakosta who was requesting favors for changes to herds with subsidized “non-existent cattle.” According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office request, she is charged with “complete, structural and definitive cover-up of fraud” as the goal was to serve a livestock farmer from her electoral district and allow him to continue receiving undeserved subsidies. According to the report, the producer in question managed “to illegally collect not only the amount of €27,800.16 for 2021, but to continue illegally drawing EU and national resources in subsequent years (2022-2024) causing certain and final damage totaling €142,249.81 to the property of the EU and the Greek State.”
The dialogue follows:
Dimitris Melas: Who is it?
Katerina Papakosta: Katerina Papakosta, MP for Trikala. The procedure from Trikala for the case of Th.B. in agreement with Z. (veterinarian) has been completed.
Dimitris Melas: I know that.
Katerina Papakosta: So you, from September as we said, should look at the remaining part, how… I don’t know, do we need to do something? Do you want me to remind you?
Dimitris Melas: No need. Before the payment that will be made at the end of September, early October, we will take the file from the veterinary database, so since it was updated they will get the new picture.
Katerina Papakosta contacted Dimitris Melas again, insisting on satisfying her request: “M. hasn’t been paid after all. Fix this issue because we’ll be exposed here now.” A phone call from the OPEKEPE administrator to an employee followed, and then he called the MP again:
Dimitris Melas: In a first picture I have about this, I’ll let myself search until Monday. Because in a first picture I have, it appears exactly with the same animals as if no correction has been made. That is, it appears with the picture it had in May when it wasn’t paid.
Katerina Papakosta: How is this possible? Z. (Veterinarian) has assured that he’s done it, I’ll talk to Z. To see what the hell has happened there now.
Dimitris Melas: I’ll look at it too.
Katerina Papakosta: Yes absolutely Mr. Melas, we must fix this, we must fix it absolutely.
Dimitris Melas: Has the producer filed an objection or some application?
Katerina Papakosta: You didn’t tell us to file an objection, you just told us to enter the correction procedure… the reduction, the reduction of animals was done before the inspection, uh Mr. Z (veterinarian) went in and corrected the date… so that it would appear that the reduction of animals was done before the inspection… so if this was indeed done, it means there was no reason to file an objection. I’m just pointing out that because he’s a very important person and we’ve assured him 99.9%.
Dimitris Melas: We’ll look at it. That is, you benefit, to a good friend of yours, let’s say voter and so on, I don’t benefit anywhere, I’m only exposed, in quotes and such… so essentially you understand that the intention existed fully… and exists… your side should appear very, I think it’s very clear to him. Of the mediation that has been done, okay? Just so he knows how much he has, uh, been involved in this part and how dilatory what happened is, because nothing would have happened… From the point where the inspection has been done.
The Karamanlis case
Meanwhile, Kostas Ach. Karamanlis, although not included in the conversations, there is a conversation of his associates aimed at settling a case for 37 producers. The subsidy amount for all producers exceeded €120,000, a fact that upgrades the moral authorship to a felony. More specifically, in communication recorded on September 11, 2021, the associate of the then Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Spilios Libanos talks with the then president of OPEKEPE Dimitris Melas:
P.A: This case of KARAMANLIS… who is interested in… which is thirty-seven people, with one uh with organics.
Dimitris Melas: It concerns M…
P.A.: I agree. How will we run this to fix it?
Dimitris Melas: Well, look, let me tell you something. Then, uh… there had been a discussion when some people from Karamanlis had come to a meeting… Well and the Minister said what could be done.
A second dialogue is also recorded in the case file, on November 5, 2021, between a ministry associate and OPEKEPE management regarding successive appeals that were eventually accepted.
The entire dialogue that has been legally recorded:
N. K.: Since it’s not about state money, his request should be satisfied.
Dimitris Melas: It is about state money.
N. K.: Is there a problem with this?
Dimitris Melas: There isn’t.
N. K.: Nikos told me if nothing is affected and we have no problem, now we went together inside, he didn’t know the issue… And he tells me, of course, KARAMANLIS is asking for it, we’ll do it.
Skrekas involvement
At the same time, the multi-page case file records the name of former “blue” secretary Kostas Skrekas. Mr. Skrekas in 2021 contacted Dimitris Melas and asked him to pay a producer who, after retrospective data modification, falsely appeared eligible.
“OPEKEPE president Dimitrios Melas, following pressure from MP Konstantinos Skrekas, gave orders to lift safety locks. Specifically, on 22/09/2021 the order was given to ‘unlock the producer’s request by bypassing error codes,'” the European prosecutor’s transmittal emphasizes, with damage to OPEKEPE calculated at €87,780.55.
As emerges from the transmittal, Dimitris Melas told Kostas Skrekas: “Well, first I fixed you up, but you owe me because I turned the world upside down.” “Yeah man, since I went and made it wearable, now okay, it became a whole thing,” says the OPEKEPE head to the MP, while at another point he mentions: “But it had to be done completely dilatorily” and then Kostas Skrekas replies: “Great, I understand.”
The complete Skrekas – Melas dialogue
K. Skrekas: Please. Dimitri?
D. Melas: Kostaki.
K. Skrekas: Come on friend, tell me.
D. Melas: Are you well?
K. Skrekas: Fine. Busy.
D. Melas: (unintelligible content) busy.
K. Skrekas: Chaos, tell me.
D. Melas: Well, first I fixed you up but you owe me because I turned the world upside down.
K. Skrekas: Ooh I like you. Tell me what am I saying, what?
D. Melas: Okay? Nothing, it’ll be okay.
K. Skrekas: Will it happen? What he’s asking for?
D. Melas: Yes. Yes.
K. Skrekas: Sure… do I tell him like this? I don’t know why I don’t know.
D. Melas: We’re talking about Voulgaris, right?
K. Skrekas: About Voulgaris yes yes yes yes yes. Will it happen?
D. Melas: Yeah man, since I went and made it wearable, now okay, it became a whole thing…
K. Skrekas: Great great.
D. Melas: But it had to be done completely dilatorily.
K. Skrekas: Great, I understand.
Giannis Kefalogiannis
On January 2, 2021, there was communication between Dimitris Melas – then president of OPEKEPE – and G.T who was a close associate of the until recently Minister of Civil Protection and Climate Crisis Giannis Kefalogiannis. G.T in the conversation he had with Mr. Melas talks about a Heraklion “trick,” whereby producers split “half and half” the money from subsidies. The then OPEKEPE president asks him for the details of the specific producers, characteristically emphasizing: “Send them to me to see if something can be done,” the OPEKEPE head mentions, requesting producer data.
Additionally, it’s emphasized that despite fraud being detected against the national reserve – there’s talk of a “Heraklion patent” by four producers “in order to save the said producers (electoral clientele) from the obligation to return money but also to protect the middleman of the circuit who was receiving threats from producers, the political intervention mechanism of I. Kefalogiannis’ political office was activated.”
The complete dialogue:
I.T.: These are the only four producers in Rethymno who belong to this case, because the “trick” is a Heraklion patent.
I.T.: He put these four… Who is one… his wife’s brother and his father-in-law is chasing him to eat him alive… the other is a thug in Athens… and he’s chasing him too… yes and the poor guy has gotten mixed up, you can’t imagine, really if… we could help him.
Dimitris Melas: How does he get involved?
I.T.: He did the job… he had a partnership with Xylouris… In Heraklion… yes and they told him this trick… he found these four people and tells them I’ll fix you and half and half… and he fixed the four of them… that is, they took it one year, but now they’re asking for it back as undue.
Dimitris Melas: 2020?
I.T.: Yes.
Dimitris Melas: Send them to me to see what, what if something can be done, right?
The sheep and goat earrings
The content of the case file transmittal is rich as it includes conversations between close associates of former Agricultural Development Minister Spilios Libanos and the then OPEKEPE president Dimitris Melas, described in the European prosecutor’s transmittal. Indeed, a legal wiretap was recorded in September 2021 during which the minister’s associate, N.K., refers to an on-site inspection that OPEKEPE was about to conduct on “some friends,” with him suggesting delaying the inspection “as much as possible,” since the producers have 300 animals, of which 80 are small. Then, the former OPEKEPE president responds: “what do you want us to do, wait for them to grow up?”
Subsequently, Dimitris Melas in another recorded communication talking to D.N. points out that someone called him from the minister’s office. Indeed, as he says, the producers “are theirs,” while he tells him that the original request concerns canceling the on-site inspection. “Now I don’t know how easy it is for you,” he characteristically mentions. Shortly after, D.N. tells Mr. Melas that the ideal solution would be for the two producers not to appear at the inspection and instead submit a medical document, emphasizing that what’s important is to have… ear tags (earrings) on the animals. “There’s no possibility the inspectors will estimate age – nobody does this at the moment in Greece nor will they, as long as they see the ear tags,” the conversation emphasizes.
How Tsiaras is involved
Kostas Tsiaras, who submitted his resignation on Friday, according to the transmittal on November 5, 2021 “intentionally caused” a high-ranking OPEKEPE employee A.B., “the decision to execute the unjust act he committed, specifically giving orders to an employee of his political office in Karditsa, to make communication, causing the head of the Thessaly – Central Greece regional direction of OPEKEPE “with persuasion, persistence, urgings and advice, exploiting his MP status and alleged closeness to political leadership (friend of the minister), the decision to commit the punishable act of breach of trust, preventing immediate cuts and imposing sanctions for 2021 amounting to €22,944.27 on a producer.”
The characteristic dialogue recorded during the wiretap:
Tsiaras Associate: Tell me now, a very good friend of the Minister called us, A. G. He’s from Fanari Karditsa. He has some ramps in the field, at Smokovos lake where water comes. And they told him that normally it’s in “greening” and he must break the ramps. What’s happening? Can these ramps be broken?
A.B.: I don’t know if it can be covered, because it’s already under inspection.
Tsiaras Associate: Your guys logically, right? From your Service they’ll come here.
A.B.: They’ve already been mapped centrally, and the on-site inspection comes for confirmation, so there’s already an issue.
Tsiaras Associate: He’s a very good friend of theirs. We shouldn’t burn him this year. How will we help him… tell me the way. What should he do, what?
A.B.: Okay I’ll talk to the guys to see what they saw.
