Years after two Greek European Commission officials were indicted for money laundering and bribery, one of them is still employed by the Commission and the other is on a full pension. This corruption case started in 2013 with investigations, and convictions and prison sentences in 2021, ended in 2023 when a Belgium judge determined that the case was too old for a retrial. Neither of the officials served prison time or paid fines.

The two Greek officials were in cahoots with a Greek/Australian/Swedish couple who illegally obtained EU subsidy money to promote European agricultural products. The couple had issued fictitious invoices claiming to have promoted European products and laundered the money through Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Seychelles. The fraud was estimated at €5.75 million.

One of the officials admitted receiving the money but said he had given it to a Greek priest as a charity donation. Besides his criminal activity, the Greek civil servant’s main claim to fame, was to ensure that ‘feta’ made it onto the list of protected designations of origin – feta can only be called feta if it comes from Greece.