Greek PM vows to investigate €290m ‘fake' farmer fraud scandal
Faced with revelations that 'fake' farmers had been scamming designated agricultural funds to the tune of a reputed €290m (£249m), Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday a special taskforce would be set up to 'immediately and exhaustively' investigate the illegal payments.
The far-reaching scandal has already prompted the resignation of five senior government officials. One was the migration minister, Makis Voridis, a former far-right activist and prominent figure in the governing New Democracy party who was agriculture minister when the fraudulent scheme is alleged to have operated.
In a rare display of damage control, Mitsotakis acknowledged the failings of a state apparatus that ought to have changed. 'The state's inadequacy is obvious,' he said. 'Clientelism [political patronage] cannot govern the way we conduct business.'
The scheme, which allegedly saw hundreds of applications being made by nonexistent owners of pasture and grazing land over a five-year period beginning in 2017, was brought to light by the European public prosecutor's office (EPPO). The Luxembourg-based office launched its inquiry in 2021.
The funds were distributed by the state subsidy agency, OPEKEPE, which has since been dissolved.
On Monday the centre-right prime minister told his cabinet that the new taskforce would be expected to act speedily. 'I await results quickly. We will investigate the incidents immediately and exhaustively in line with internal and European legislation. Since OPEKEPE didn't manage to do its work the state will do it centrally.'
The scandal has been described as 'one of the biggest farming frauds of recent years' according to Politico, which said the illegally siphoned funds could amount to €45m (£38.6m) a year. The misuse was such that citizens with no known links to the agriculture sector, including a lawyer based in Athens, had applied for the aid. Some had posed as the owners of fictitious plots and others making claims as fake livestock breeders.
Officials who had tried to alert authorities after uncovering irregularities were either discredited, demoted or removed from top posts. OPEKEPE has had six presidents over the past five years.
The revelations have fuelled public anger and come against a backdrop of disaffection with a political elite seen as inefficient, out of touch and corrupt. An MRB poll last week revealed a stunning 74.5% of Greeks believed ministers had a hand in the scandal.
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'While it is very positive that at long last this abscess has been lanced it does not honour the country that [it] is being cleaned up at the initiative of the European prosecutor,' said Maximos Charakopoulos, a governing party MP from the farming region of Larissa.
For Mitsotakis, a leading figure of the European centre-right who led his party to a landslide victory and second term in 2023, the scandal is as embarrassing as it is potentially damaging.
A significant number of the false claims were made in his native Crete, where the prime minister's prominent political family have long held sway.
EU diplomats in Athens said Mitsotakis was at risk of losing the high moral ground needed to govern effectively if he was not seen to act fast. 'This scandal is so big that he has to act decisively,' one said. 'His language and actions show us that he is aware the rot needs to be exposed.'
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Sheriffs and judges have a key speaking role in every kind of court hearing. It might be sentencing an offender, addressing a jury, dealing with objections raised by the prosecution or defence during witness testimony or simply announcing when it is time to break for lunch. If the most senior legal figure in the room lacks the power of speech, do the wheels of justice not grind to a halt? Thanks to a spot of computer wizardry, they are still turning in Sheriff Carmichael's courtroom. His synthesised voice – a representation of how he spoke before his condition progressed too far – is now telling the jury to listen carefully to the charges which the sheriff clerk is about to read out. A few minutes later, as he embarks on a 20-minute address on the jury's role in the trial, he expands on the technological intricacies at play in having a computer do your speaking for you. Some of the things they will hear him say are 'pre-loaded' on to the computer. 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'I banked my voice early on – when it wasn't badly impaired – by recording 300 sentences,' says the sheriff. 'SpeakUnique did the rest and produced my synthetic voice.' True, things can and do go wrong. One occasion, he was putting an interpreter on oath and he pressed the wrong key. 'There is no alternative to a custodial sentence,' the synthesised voice told the startled witness. 'Luckily, she was a regular in court and was familiar with me using my laptop,' he says. 'Also, she has a cracking sense of humour, so we were able to have a smile about it and then carry on. 'You are very exposed when you're in court because it's a public place and there are always people watching and listening – that's the way it's meant to be – so when things go wrong there's no hiding place. 'Things do go wrong, and I do make mistakes with this IT. 'However, it's just like somebody who can speak with their own voice saying the wrong thing; you have to correct the mistake and carry on. 'Courts are not inherently funny places because we deal with all sorts of bad stuff. But when something does go wrong, there can still be a humorous side to it.' His mastery of the two programs he needs to preside over trials is improving every day, however, and the process is becoming slicker. By the time the court breaks for lunch the lengthy instructions to the jury are delivered – even if the sheriff hasn't said a word. It helps that he engages them with his eyes throughout and uses facial and hand gestures to underline his points. It is only afterwards that he admits to me the jury speech did not go entirely as planned. It was delivered by the somewhat monotone Flat George – who turns up when there is no internet connection – rather than Smooth George, who does the talking when there is. 'I'm a big fan of Smooth George because he makes me sound rather suave and reasonably intelligent.' There is another light moment as the jury returns for the afternoon session. The sheriff smiles wryly as he and his computer tell them: 'I do hope that your jury lunch was all that you dreamed it would be, and more.' But, as the first witness is called, solemnity is restored. The challenges on the bench and the sheriff's monumental effort to overcome them are set aside and, just as it should be, the focus is solely on the evidence. It is true justice proceeds a little more slowly in Sheriff Carmichael's court – partly because he has deliberately avoided preloading stock phrases for every eventuality. He explains: 'If I just pressed a button for every situation it would be a robotic, unempathetic and sterile way to go about things. Juries and everybody else in court must be able to trust me to be fair. 'It's a fact that I can't speak, and also that I have to use this IT to communicate. It's a fact that it takes a wee bit longer to use this IT than it did when I could speak. 'But seeing me flailing away at the keyboard underlines to people that I am human, that I can't speak and that I am focused and invested in whichever case it is that I am doing at the time.' How have the various courtroom players responded to his cast of synthesised speakers? 'It's amazing,' he says. 'Most people think at first that it's a bit different – and they'd be right. What I appreciate the most is that people adapt very quickly to allowing me a wee bit of extra time to type and speak, and they are looking for visual clues.' Indeed, he suggests, it is they who make his work possible. 'Some people will tell me how amazed they are at what we're achieving. I suppose that they're right, but they often forget that they are playing a huge part in this too by adapting how they communicate with me.' His wife Helen and two grown-up sons remain the most attuned to his deteriorating speaking voice and, he says, 'keep retuning' to it as it declines. But he admits: 'Recently even they can struggle to get it sometimes or perhaps won't get it at all. I do write notes sometimes and will use the SpeakUnique app on my phone to talk to them as well.' Yet, with the backing of his boss, Sheriff Principal Gillian Wade, and 'fantastic' support from lawyers and court staff, he has prevailed in his job. How important was it for him to stay on in the face of a seemingly disastrous diagnosis? 'It means a hell of a lot. I have always been motivated by public service. I had a great start in life and have always wanted to use that to contribute to society as best as I can. 'I don't just want to a part of society, I want to be an active participant who makes a positive contribution.' He says he has no plans to retire before 70, which is the mandatory age for sheriffs to go. 'I don't know what MND has planned for me, other than that it won't be pleasant. All of the medicos have been at pains to say that it goes for different people in different ways and at different rates. 'I'm not going to consume time and energy thinking ahead to what might happen and to what I might not be able to do, I'd rather use it to enjoy what I can do today.' For a man dedicated to justice his diagnosis seems the opposite of that. But justice is prevailing in courtroom number four – inspirationally so.
