A total of 1,036 taxpayers have received illegal subsidies totaling almost 22.7 million euros, based on the ongoing investigation into a massive farm aid scam to defraud the European Union of hundreds of millions of euros, Citizen Protection Minister, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said on Tuesday.

Presenting the results of the police investigation into the OPEKEPE scandal, the minister said authorities looked into 6,354 tax numbers. 

The information has been passed over to the prosecutor who has seized the assets of applicants for unduly paid benefits.

Of the 1,036 tax numbers that were found to have received illegal subsidies, 850 are located in Crete. Of these, 273 received amounts exceeding 20,000 euros, according to data released by the ministry shortly after Chrysochoidis’ press conference.

“It cannot and should not be tolerated that some people misuse valuable public resources, whether national or European. These resources are intended to support the Greek agricultural economy, not for the illegal and unjustified enrichment of some people,” he said.

OPEKEPE has been embroiled in a major scandal involving the illegal disbursement of European aid to unqualified recipients, mostly in Crete. Last June, Agriculture Minister Kostas Tsiaras announced that OPEKEPE would merge into AADE as a fourth directorate, to improve accountability and transparency.

The investigation that first revealed widespread fraud in OPEKEPE began by the European Prosecutor’s Office in the summer of 2020. It indicated that farmers allegedly claimed ownership of public lands and created fictitious rental agreements to receive millions in European Union funding.

Five high-ranking Greek government officials, including a minister and three deputies, resigned following allegations of involvement in the case.

In a separate but related case, on 11 June the European Commission imposed a 415-million-euro fine on Greece for the systematic mismanagement of agricultural aid from 2016 to 2023 – again involving OPEKEPE.