Financial Police

The Athens Public Prosecutor’s Office has pressed serious criminal charges, including eight felonies and two misdemeanors, against those arrested for the fraud scheme against the Greek National Organization for Healthcare Services (EOPYY).

The Financial Police conducted searches at the homes of MEP Eva Kaili in Psychiko and her sister Madalena in Kifissia, which ended Wednesday.

A Belgian prosecutor was also present during the checks, executing a European order for an investigation by Belgian judicial authorities into Kaili, one the of main suspects in a corruption probe at the European Parliament.

North Macedonia's chief state prosecutor, Ljubomir Joveski, has suspended the head of the Organised Crime Prosecution, Vilma Ruskovska, over a suspicion that she has made a "major professional mistake" while recently probing the premises of the Financial Police for alleged crimes.

Fourteen people were arrested as members of a suspected criminal network smuggling large quantities of alcohol from Bulgaria and reselling it in Greece, police said Saturday.

Officers of the Financial Police and the Greek Police conducted a sweep on cafes and bars at holiday resorts on the island of Salamina and in Halkidiki, northern Greece, over the weekend, recording several violations of labor and tax laws. 

North Macedonia's government said on Tuesday that it has decided to form an "operational" anti-graft team headed by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski and including other top officials.

The team will "work uncompromisingly and through a coordinated approach in the fight against crime and corruption", the government said in a statement.

Members of the Financial Police in northern Greece on Wednesday arrested four suspected members of a contraband tobacco smuggling racket after finding 924,000 packets of illegal cigarettes in a warehouse near Thessaloniki.

In a statement on Friday, Stelios Pappas, the head of the Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organization (OASTH) described the burglary of his home on Thursday night as an attempt to hamper efforts to liquidate the company.

The burglary, during which only a laptop was stolen, was "a targeted intervention," Pappas said in a statement.

A police operation on Monday led to the arrest of 11 Greeks - 10 men and a woman - believed to be members of an international criminal racket dealing in anabolic steroids in Greece and other countries.

Working together, officers of the Greek Police (ELAS) and the Financial Police conducted simultaneous raids in Attica, Crete and Epirus.

The illegal turnover of offline gambling is in the process of turning legal. Last year alone gaming giant OPAP's turnover from games of chance on video lotto terminals (VLTs) came to 1 billion euros. This turnover has not come about through new players discovering slot machines but rather from the legalization of the existing illegal market.