Prosecutors filed numerous felony charges on Tuesday against a self-declared multi-billionaire roughly a week after he disappeared to avoid incarceration stemming from a previous conviction on embezzlement charges earlier in the month.
Prosecutors filed numerous felony charges on Tuesday against a self-declared multi-billionaire roughly a week after he disappeared to avoid incarceration stemming from a previous conviction on embezzlement charges earlier in the month.
Artemis Sorras and another seven individuals, described as close associates, were charged with multiple counts of fraud against thousands of citizens. Prosecutors cited statements by the defendants claiming to own or manage up to 600 billion euros in bearer bonds, an astronomical sum that they promised to used to erase Greece's public debt and pay off individual taxpayers' debts.
Another arrest warrant was issued for Sorras, a resident of the western port city of Patras, who is now considered a fugitive.
Felony charges include racketeering, fraud, misappropriation damaging the state and credit institutions, fraud, disseminating false information, perjury and money laundering, among others.
Prosecutors also recorded evidence that dozens of taxpayers in Greece with hundreds of thousands of euros in arrears to the tax bureau and social security funds, including business owners, invoked the alleged sum in justifying their refusal to pay.