Greece has introduced sweeping legislation to dismantle organised tax evasion rings, fast-tracking audits, fines and criminal proceedings in a bid to choke off the financial networks bankrolling large-scale fraud.
The amendment, tabled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, takes direct aim at syndicates that hide behind shell companies, proxy figures and labyrinthine corporate structures to orchestrate VAT fraud on an industrial scale.
Under the new framework, police's Organised Crime Division (DAOE) will work hand-in-glove with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE). Minister of Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis said the overhaul would end the chronic delays and fragmented procedures that have long hampered financial investigations.
When investigators uncover felony tax evasion tied to criminal networks, DAOE findings will be forwarded immediately to AADE, which can issue provisional assessments and fines on the spot — even during an in-flagrante arrest — folding the penalties into the case file before formal charges are even filed.
Crucially, the law fuses tax administration with criminal justice: trials will now be suspended until tax assessments are finalised, either through expired appeal windows or definitive court rulings, with the statute of limitations paused in the meantime to stop cases from quietly expiring.
Pierrakakis's ministry said the goal is to pierce the corporate veil once and for all — ensuring the masterminds behind these networks face not just criminal sentences, but financial penalties severe enough to break the business model entirely.
By Kostas Tsachakis