Monks, Prince Charles and the Greek Investment Property Scam

Monks, Prince C harles and the Greek Investment Property Scam

As Greece moves into spring, and the nation wakes from its winter hibernation, the Vatopedi property scandal rumbles on. This scheme, involving high-ranking members of the government and the Greek Orthodox Church, became one of the pressure points leading to the Athens riots last year. As the sheer scale of the financial frauds committed across the world becomes apparent, even the allegedly holy are embroiled in the economic morass.

The Back ground to the Scam

Vatopedi, on the semi-autonomous Mt Athos, is one of the most prestigious monasteries in Greece, home to a wealth of holy relics and religious art. Its size gives Vatopedi a certain amount of authority in the Greek Orthodox Chu rch, and the scandal exposed a gross misuse of this power. The Greek media, not as toothless and emasculated as their US and British counterparts, followed a trail of corruption. They gleefully informed the public, still reeling from the Siemens scandal.

In a dodgy deal, the monastery traded useless plots of land for prime real estate, owned by the Greek state, in over 250 separate deals. During the course of the scam, government ministers and aides skimmed money from the religious gravy train. The trail ultimately leads to the Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis, although he has not yet been directly implicated. His ruling New Democracy party became elected on a promise of cleaning out the nepotism and rampant corruption witnessed under the socialist PASOK government. In September 2008, the Merchant Marine Minister, Giorgios Voulgarakis resigned, allegedly to defend himself from ‘unjust accusations’. Voulgarikis’ wife acted as a public notary for many of the transactions, in a blatant display of nepotism. Notaries are paid a percentage, so that added up to a tidy personal profit out of this Greek investment property scam.

One of the grey areas allowing Athos to remain outside legal jurisdiction is its semi-autonomous nature. The peninsula is technically outside Greece, and the monasteries answer to the Patriarch of Istanbul rather than the Athenian P atriarchy. This legal limbo has seen the peninsula often implicated in money laundering frauds, and the Greek property investment scam has added fuel to this smouldering fire. The Monastery, far from being home to a few monks going about their daily rituals, is a draw for the rich and influential, including Russian Oligarchs, Prince Charles and Vladimir Putin. Obviously, I do not want Polonium poisoning or a car accident, so must point out that neither of those figures are in any way connected to the illegal activities.

Growing Anger at the Greek Investment Property Scam

The 19^th of March saw a bomb detonated outside the Greek Real Estate department building in Athens. The bomb was detonated remotely, ensuring that nobody was hurt, and the police have linked the device to growing resentment over the Vatopedi scandal. The Church stealing money from the pockets of the taxpayer really hurt the devout populace, and you would be hard pushed to find a Greek condemning the bombing.