Movement of state and European funds through a network of vehicle companies, direct awards to training contractors who had no technical means or staff, payments in cash, and some €2.1 million that changed hands without legal justification, or for services that may never have been provided…

This is how it is described that for years the scheme for the misappropriation of public money, which the Authority for the Fight against Money Laundering, in the case in which it implicates the president of the GSEE Giannis Panagopoulos, together with five other natural persons, for whom it considers that there are serious indications that, jointly and in cooperation, they have committed felony embezzlement against the Greek State and the European Union, on a professional and repeated basis.

On 3 February 2026, the Authority issued an asset freezing order, following a finding forwarded to the Prosecutor of the Athens Prosecutor’s Office. The case concerns six natural persons -as well as many companies through which the disputed funds were allegedly moved- for which, from the consideration of the evidence, the Authority finds that there are serious indications that they developed a common and coordinated action, for the commission of embezzlement and the commission of the offence of professional money laundering, in accordance with the provisions of Law 4557/2018 and the Criminal Code.

The role of the president of the GSEE

The central figure of the Authority’s investigation appears to be Giannis Panagopoulos, who, in his capacity as president of the General Confederation of Greek Workers and affiliated bodies (such as the Labour Institute and the Vocational Training Centres of the GSEE), allegedly participated in the misappropriation of funds from grants and European funding for the implementation of educational programmes. These entities manage significant amounts of public and European funds earmarked for the vocational training of workers.

The “vehicle companies” and cash

The Authority’s investigation shows that the funds were managed through the awarding of projects, either through direct contracts or following competitive tendering procedures, to specific outreach and communication companies, publishing houses, fund management consultants, etc., which sometimes alternated between them in the “business”.

According to reports, the tactics the Authority found that they were following were as follows:

*The legal entities of the GSEE were allocating funds for the implementation of training programmes.

The institutions of the GGEU were engaged in training programmes for the implementation of training programmes.

The company’s members of the European Parliament, in particular, were engaged in training programmes for the implementation of training programmes for the benefit of the members of the European Union.
* The contractor companies were concluding contracts, collecting in cash part of the funds without legal cause, credited by the financial system.

* Some of them lacked the necessary staff to effectively implement their contractual obligations, which, according to the Authority, demonstrates that they had the role of ‘vehicle’ companies for the movement of funds.

* The funds were illegally ending up with the beneficial owners of the companies and Mr Panagopoulos.

* The amount of funds allegedly moved through the activities is estimated to exceed EUR 2,096,344.19.

Based on this evidence, the Authority considered that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the suspects have unlawfully appropriated this amount and subsequently mixed it with other assets lawfully held by them. They used it in their general economic activities and held it for a long period of time, intending to legalize it, thus disguising its true origin and making it impossible to trace and confiscate it.

Intermediate “links”

The critical finding of the auditors was that in the investigation of the companies awarded the projects, in some cases, it was found that they did not have the necessary staff and infrastructure to carry out the contractual obligations of the training project for which they were selected. This element indicates, in the Authority’s view, the functioning of these companies as ‘intermediaries’ for the channelling of funds to the actual beneficiaries (i.e., the natural persons involved) and not as legal contractors of project contracts.

The other significant finding, according to the freezing order, was that the funds were used in the general economic activities of the persons involved and held for a long period of time, mixing part of them with other legitimate proceeds, constituting the offence of professional money laundering.

Requests and attachments

However, by disguising the true origin and subsequently the destination of this money, the Authority was able to identify just a portion of the amounts alleged to be the proceeds of crime.

In order not to lose the possibility of recovering the money from the public, the Authority considered it necessary to freeze the bank accounts, securities, investment and financial products, as well as safe deposit boxes of the natural and legal persons involved, up to the amount of the estimated criminal proceeds. Excluded from the freezing are amounts corresponding to salaries, pensions, and basic living expenses, as well as legal costs of the persons involved.

In addition, it ordered the prohibition of sale or any other transfer of assets of the controlled persons such as, among others, the full ownership of “a plot of land, within a settlement, with the existing ground floor elevated house, with an area of two thousand one (2,001) square meters” currently located within the boundaries of the Municipal Community of Agios Stefanos.

The undertakings are in effect as part of the statutory process, pending the final adjudication by the Judiciary of the charges facing the alleged participants in the scheme. In the case of a share freeze, the Authority will, exceptionally, allow the partial or total sale or transfer of shares, provided that the proceeds of the sale or transfer are deposited into the person’s frozen accounts.