European prosecutor slams ‘attacks’ and ‘intimidation’ against Greek farm fraud probe

ATHENS — European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi is vowing to press ahead with a probe into major alleged fraud involving the EU's massive farm budget in Greece despite what she describes as "attacks" and "intimidation" against her staff.

In dramatic scenes last week, EU officials from the European Public Prosecutor's Office met physical resistance from employees of the Greek state agency OPEKEPE, which is responsible for doling out farm funds and lies at the heart of the investigation.

On Friday, the Greek government was forced to fire OPEKEPE's president for failing to cooperate with the EU probe.

EPPO is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greek citizens received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or had not leased, or for agricultural work they never did, depriving real farmers of the cash they deserved. The multi-year, multimillion-euro scam was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year.

“I welcome the Greek authorities’ response to recent developments at OPEKEPE, with the aim to preserve effective cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Kövesi told POLITICO.

“I would like to reassure the general public that the EPPO will continue its work diligently and impartially to establish the truth, no matter the attacks and intimidation against its prosecutors,” she said. “I consider that the immediate purpose of these attempts is to deviate the attention of the general public from what is really at stake in this case: Was there organized agricultural subsidy fraud and corruption, yes or no?”

Last Monday, European prosecutors raided the headquarters of OPEKEPE, confiscating digital data stored locally and in the cloud, as well as hard disks and mobile phones, according to officials in EPPO and OPEKEPE.

At the same time, other raids took place at OPEKEPE’s regional directorate on Crete as well as at the houses of four high-ranking officials and the residence of a former vice president of the organization, according to the same officials.

The raid in Athens snowballed into a tense standoff.

Two prosecutors, along with 20 police officers, arrived at OPEKEPE at 9:30 a.m. on May 19 but were obstructed from accessing the data requested, according to EPPO.

OPEKEPE employees said they were unable to provide the data owing to the absence of technical advisers. After several hours, the prosecutors requested affidavits from employees confirming their inability to comply, which they refused to sign. The prosecutors asked OPEKEPE’s President Nikos Salatas to sign an affidavit or face arrest for obstructing justice, EPPO said.

He ultimately cooperated, and the prosecutors finally left OPEKEPE at 4 a.m. the next day with everything they needed, according to EPPO.

While this clash was under way in the building, OPEKEPE issued a statement asserting full cooperation with the investigation. The next day EPPO issued a strongly worded statement accusing the agency of not cooperating and suggested possible systematic fraudulent practices that involved OPEKEPE officials.

"Gathering digital evidence at the headquarters of OPEKEPE proved particularly challenging and was significantly delayed until 4:00 this morning," EPPO said.

In response, OPEKEPE demanded that EPPO retract its allegations within 48 hours, threatening legal action to protect its reputation. Shortly afterward, the Ministry of Rural Development announced Salatas’ dismissal, citing the public interest. Salatas, who had been in his post since January, publicly refused to resign, claiming he was defending the organization’s integrity. He was sacked late on Friday.

Still, in a TV interview on Monday morning he claimed “everything was done perfectly” during the raid.

He singled out one of the prosecutors, Nikos Paschalis (who wasn’t actually present in the building during the raid), as having written the harsh statement against OPEKEPE, accusing him of “heavy slander” that was “directed against our country.”

OPEKEPE has been under EU supervision since September 2024 because of noncompliance with operational standards. It now risks losing its certification to manage EU funds, which could happen in July when EU authorities visit Athens to monitor progress.