Greek Financial Police has completed an investigation regarding a scam against the State and social security fund IKA, resulting in damages to the tune of 12.8 million euros. Suspects are facing felony charges of fraud, forgery, violating tax legislation and embezzling funds from the State, amongst others. The investigation revealed that 18 people were involved in the social security scam. It has been estimated that between 2010 and 2013 the State and IKA suffered damages amounting to 7.8 and 5 million euros respectively by the activities of a ring that set up dummy companies faking social security payments for employees so that the real employers did not have any obligation to insure them. However the dummy companies paid none of the social security dues they had accrued. Through a labyrinthine network of overlapping insurance paths, they used five dummy companies to lift the obligation of social security payments for employees of a number of real firms, mostly gyms and cleaning crews. At the heart of the scam is a 54-year-old accountant. The police investigation also revealed that the implicated companies were not only content with scamming the State and insurance funds, as they did not pay their employees their wages and benefits. Additionally, the employees have lost the insurance stamps they accumulated during the 3-year-period the scam took place, leaving many of them in a difficult situation.
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