Ministry of Finance of Greece made public this weekend a list of 4,000 names of people involved in tax evasion, accusing them that they have stolen from the state 14.9 billion euros. However, the list is much larger, government deciding to name only those who have made tax evasion of over 150,000 euros. Nikolas Kassimatis stood out, the 57-year-old accountant owing Greek state 952 million euros (1.23 billion dollars), funds that he embezzled using the audit system in Greece.
Iefimerida, a Greek newspaper, quoted by Business Insider, announced that Nikolas Kassimatis was sentenced to 504 years in prison after it was proved that he defrauded the state. Kassimatis began defrauding the state in 1993, when he founded several phantom companies used to request tax returns. Corruption activities have emerged in 2001, when Greek officials have opened investigations of several officials of customs and tax authorities. Businessmen who joined Kassimatis were also part of the investigation and have been prosecuted.
Following investigations, Kassimatis fled the country, but the authorities only learned about it in 2009 when he was arrested for another offense. However, until then, Kassimatis changed his appearance through plastic surgery. Once Kassimatis was arrested, it came to light but how bad is the Greek government management. The official that, during the fraud was head of the office responsible for collecting VAT which Kassimatis took advantage of, not only escaped indictment, but was even promoted. Kassimatis eventually involved in his fraud nearly 50 fiscal agents. Following new investigations, former director of the office was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, Kassimatis says that there were many people involved in his deeds of fraud.
