OPEKEPE: Witness denounces non-existent on-site inspections and fake grazing land

The trial concerning the European subsidies that were allegedly distributed illegally by OPEKEPE has begun with witness testimonies.

The President of the Agricultural Cooperative of Kastoria spoke about “fake grazing lands” and nonexistent on-site inspections by OPEKEPE, calling it a “scam.”

The Three-Member Misdemeanor Court of Athens is tasked with ruling on the European funds allocated to a total of 57 farmers between 2020 and 2021, who are accused of fraud against the EU. Another person is accused of aiding in the crime. According to the allegations, the accused were not entitled to receive the subsidies, which amounted to approximately 20,000 euros each, because while they were operating in Crete, they claimed plots of land with olive and almond trees in Kastoria. In this context, Dimitris Moschos, the President of the Agricultural Cooperative of Kastoria, made serious accusations against both the defendants and the Organization.

He explained that in 2020, he requested and received data regarding Kastoria and discovered the fraudulent claims. “In Kastoria, they had declared 64,000 hectares of private grazing lands, 22,000 hectares of olive trees, even though olives don’t thrive in the region, and 17,000 almonds, which also do not thrive there,” he stated, adding that there are no private grazing lands larger than 100 hectares in Kastoria.

He denounced the scale of the fraud as follows: “The private grazing lands are purely fictional, and it is false that an on-site inspection was conducted by OPEKEPE. I have lost my mind. This has never happened! Now I understand how the game was played; such on-site inspections never took place!” The witness, who had filed a report with the Prosecutor’s Office of Kastoria and officially informed the head of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, about the issue, also testified that the following year, no private grazing land was declared in Kastoria.