Almost 25,000 notified
Nearly half of the 54,000 Greeks who transferred money abroad recently and were investigated by the government have deposits that are greater than their declared income, Deputy Finance Minister Giorgos Mavraganis told Parliament yesterday. Mavraganis said that 24,710 Greeks who sent money abroad have been sent notices by the ministry, asking them to justify their savings. He said more details regarding the depositors would be presented to MPs in the coming days.
Bus stoppage.
There will be no buses in Athens today between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. as drivers will be taking part in their general assembly, when they are expected to discuss how to protest wage cuts. The drivers’ assembly last month lasted 14 hours.
Terror arrests.
Police in the western port of Patra yesterday detained two Turkish nationals being sought by Turkish and European authorities for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities and other criminal acts. The two men, aged 36 and 47, had reportedly submitted applications for asylum. The youngest of the two is wanted for forgery and possession of explosives as well as membership of an unnamed terrorist organization, while the elder faces charges of manslaughter as well as belonging to a terrorist group.
Extortion rackets.
The head of the police precinct in Aegaleo, western Athens, was detained yesterday by officers of the force’s internal affairs unit for the alleged extortion of immigrant store managers and owners. The officer is alleged to have conducted raids on stores, on the pretext of looking for counterfeit cigarettes, before blackmailing the migrants into paying protection money. The suspect was caught after a Bangladeshi store-owner refused his demand for cash. Police are seeking a retired policeman and a Pakistani national alleged to have worked as accomplices with the chief suspect. In a related development in Halkida, police announced they had broken a protection racket said to have been preying on stores on the island of Evia. Four Greeks and an Albanian national were detained.
Tax evasion.
A 48-year-old Greek national faced a prosecutor in Kiato, near Corinth in the Peloponnese, yesterday in connection to an unpaid tax bill of 23 million euros. It remained unclear whether the debt was withheld value-added tax or unpaid income tax. It was the latest in a series of arrests of large-scale alleged tax evaders in recent weeks.