The bank accounts and assets of a number of nightclub owners in the Peloponnese have been frozen by the President of the Hellenic Anti-Money Laundering Authority (HAMLA) Charalambos Vourliotis, a former Deputy Prosecutor of the Greek Supreme Court, as they were found to be recipients of large sums of money from two high-ranking clerics in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church of Greece.
At the same time, the Authority's findings were forwarded to the prosecuting authorities of the headquarters of the Catholic Church of Greece, in order to check the two priests for possible embezzlement and the business people owning the nightclubs for money laundering. In fact, one of the nightclub owners was found to have previous involvement in criminal offences in the past. The headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican has also been informed of the action taken.
HAMLA, in the framework of an audit, found that large sums of money amounting to approximately 3.0 million euro, had "left" the treasury of the Catholic Church and were invested in nightclubs. This practice started eight years ago.
Initially, the Authority was informed by the banks about "suspicious" movements of large sums of money and started a thorough audit in order to map the route of the money and identify the actual number of persons involved in the case
According to the investigation, there were indications of serious offences, such as embezzlement and money laundering.
The Authority found that 3 million euros had been embezzled from the Catholic Church's treasury and then the identities of both the two priests and the nightclub owners were revealed.
The last suspicious transfer of money was detected a few days ago and involved the amount of 50,000 euros.