An incredible comeback of almost half a million was revealed after "satanic" coincidences. The facts come to light through a decision of the Criminal Court, which imposed a prison sentence of more than 20 years on one defendant and a sum of money as a fine on a second defendant.
The defendant received the total amount of € 434.886,51 from which he benefited together with the defendant (3) with the amount of € 429.119,52. According to the facts of the case, the offenses were committed during the period January 2012-April 2017 .
The history of fraud
At the material time of the offenses, Defendant 1 worked as a manager of a printing house 3 in the company "AM Services" (the "complainant") while Defendant 3 was a company owned by his wife. Defendant 1 prepared every month forged invoices of Defendant 3 for the purchase of printing plates, with a total value of € 382.267,50, without the complainant being provided with the specific quantities of plates and he and Defendant 3 earning the corresponding amount. At the same time, Defendant 1 had extracted the amount of € 46.852,02 from the complainant, falsely claiming that the paging services of the newspaper "Daily Mail" could only be provided by Defendant 3 while he had benefited with the amount of € 5.766,96 selling printing paper of the complaining company and stating as a sale price a smaller amount.
The offenses were revealed when Defendant 1 was fired from the printing house, on 15/05/17, as redundant staff and a meeting of the printing house employees was convened in order to achieve a new division of labor between the employees. In the mentioned meeting it was ascertained that the printing house did not supply printing plates from the Accused 3 company and that plates had never been received from it. Due to this finding, a wider inspection was carried out for the period 01/01/12 to 30/04/17 and it was found that the quantities on printing plates used by the employees of the printing house were much smaller than those that Defendant 1 stated in the monthly newsletters. Following this, the Director of the complaining company complained to the Police that Defendant 1 declared fictitious purchases of printing plates from Defendant 3 and presented relevant fictitious invoices of the specific company while fictitious paging services were purchased from Defendant 3 worth € 46.852,02.
The investigation revealed that Defendant 1 for a period of 6 years, ie from 09/01/12 to 17/04/17, prepared and issued fake invoices through the company, which belonged to his wife, presenting virtual purchases for printing plates. He further purchased bookmarking services with false statements that these services were imposed as they came from Defendant 3, at the request of the "Saturn" Agency, a fact which did not correspond to reality. At the same time, he appropriated the amount of € 5.766,99 by selling the scrap printing paper of the complaining company to individuals, for a larger amount than what he declared to the accounting department. The result of the acts of the Accused 1 was for him to illegally obtain the amount of € 434.886,51 and for the Accused 3 to benefit with the amount of € 429.119,52.
The Criminal Court says a very serious case
The criminal case notes that the Criminal Court is considered very serious since Defendant 1 for 6 whole years presented fake invoices to his employer and in this way had extracted the not insignificant amount of € 434.865,51. It follows from the facts that Defendant 1 acted methodically and continuously, devising a plan to deceive his employers and thus succeeding in embezzling the stated amount. We note, however, that the repentance of the Accused was not accompanied by the compensation of the Complainant, since no amount has been returned to date.
Details of the sentences:
A) To Defendant 1:
- In category 239, which concerns theft by a secretary of their amount
€ 382.267,50, imprisonment sentence of 6 years.
- In category 242, which concerns theft by a secretary of their amount
€ 5.766,99, imprisonment sentence of 3 years.
- In each of the categories of forgery, a prison sentence of 2 years.
- In the accusations concerning the circulation of a forged document, no penalty.
- In category 241, which concerns the securing of money through false representations, a prison sentence of 3 years.
- In category 244, which concerns the money laundering amounting to € 434.886,51, imprisonment of 6 years.
The sentences should be met and their construction should start from today, but to be reduced during the time that Defendant 1 is in custody, ie
from 31/10/19.
B) In Accused 3 (company) a fine of € 150.000 is imposed in category 243 which concerns the offense of money laundering. In all
other categories (1-238 and 240) no penalty is imposed, as the individual amounts appropriated were included in the above category.
Source: sigmalive