Fourteen people in a disbanded Greek Non-Governmental Organization called the Cycle of Patmos which held environmental conferences on cruise ships that lured religious leaders and top analysts have been charged with criminal fraud and money laundering after they could not account for 3 million euros ($4 million) in their financial records.
Those charged include 10 former executives and four of the suspects’ relatives, according to police and judicial authorities, the Associated Press reported. They were not identified.
The group received state funding from Greece and the European Union, and organized a series of major environmental events from the Arctic to the Mississippi between 1997 and 2009, police said.
The events were held under an environmental interfaith initiative led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul, Turkey-based spiritual leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians. The conferences attended by high-profile groups of religious leaders, scientists and activists served as a platform for dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic faiths.
A conference in the Adriatic Sea in 2002 led to a joint declaration between Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II — who attended by video link — on the shared Christian responsibility to protect the environment. “Sums of money were transferred from the bank account of the non-governmental organization to accounts of its members for the payment of personal loans, the operation of off-shore companies and property refurbishment,” police said in a statement.
It said the suspects also allegedly charged the organizations with bogus and personal expenses, used its facilities as private property, and assigned projects to close associates without getting bids. In one case, the statement said, the suspects failed to return funding from a Greek ministry after a Caspian Sea conference was cancelled due to security concerns. For another conference, a Greek bank and the government were billed for the same item.
The Greek foreign ministry, which provided the Cycle of Patmos with 1.2 million euros ($1.58 million) of the 1.6 million cost ($2.11 million) of a 2006 cruise down the Amazon, was among the main donors. The AP also reported that a foreign ministry official said the ministry is fully cooperating with the judiciary and providing all available information to help the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the case.
The charges come amid a crackdown on abuse of public funds during Greece’s acute financial crisis, and authorities are also investigating dozens of other NGOs that received state funding. The country is being kept afloat by international bailouts, issued on condition of harsh spending cuts, tax hikes and other austerity measures that have plunged thousands into poverty.
The newspaper Kathimerini said the amount involved could be as much as 5 million euros ($6.6 million) in state funds from 2000-10. Public prosecutor Evgenia Kyvelou brought the charges of embezzlement against the state, which is a felony, with defrauding members of the public, and legalizing revenue from criminal activities.
The NGO describes its objective as “marrying religious conscience and the environment.” An investigation ordered by the prosecutor found irregularities with the group’s finances – particularly the allocation of funds that had been granted in the form of state subsidies and private donations, the newspaper said.
There is no official record of the subsidies, but estimates put the entire sum at 4-5 million euros. Much of that money has reportedly been traced to a London bank account that is not registered with the NGO. A number of Greek NGOs are currently under investigation by the Greek authorities in connection with financial malpractice.
While the investigation concerns the Cycle of Patmos NGO, the conference websites list the London-based Religion, Science and the Environment group as organizers. The RSE site refers to an Athens office with the same address, phone and fax numbers used by the Patmos Cycle.
Conference sponsors listed on the RSE site are mostly Greek entities — among which many state corporations — and include Greece’s foreign, culture and finance ministries. The RSE could not be reached for comment, the AP said. A prosecutor heading the investigation recommended that further judicial action be taken to seize property owned by the suspects if they are convicted.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
