Fugitive serving 120-year sentence arrested in Lamia after 30 years
A 66-year-old from Thessaloniki, wanted for VAT fraud, was arrested on 31 August in Lamia with 34 outstanding court decisions.
Thirty years of flight end in an apartment on Papaflessa Street
According to Ta Nea, a 66-year-old from Thessaloniki with accumulated sentences totalling 120 years of imprisonment was arrested on the morning of 31 August in Lamia after nearly three decades of continuous disappearance. Against him there were 34 outstanding court decisions and investigating magistrates' warrants.
Police from the Charilaou-Analeipseos Security Division assessed information according to which the wanted man was living in a city in Phthiotis. They informed their colleagues in Lamia, an operation was set up and the 66-year-old was located and arrested in his apartment. After the issue of a detention order he was taken to prison.
The Papaflessa Street apartment and the wife from Panama
According to exclusive information from LamiaReport, the 66-year-old had purchased the apartment on Papaflessa Street, near the centre of Lamia, in December 2025. The property was registered in the name of his 27-year-old wife, who is from Panama.
He appeared to be a man of considerable financial standing with real estate holdings in northern Greece. When he demanded excessive rent from the apartment's tenant at the time, the latter refused to pay and moved out. This was followed by renovation of the property, during which the 66-year-old would visit from time to time with his young wife.
Lamia had not previously been part of his life. His relatives, according to information, live in other regions of Greece. Why he remained in the country instead of disappearing again abroad remains unknown; reports suggest there was a serious family matter involved.
The scandal of fraudulent VAT refunds
The 66-year-old's story begins in the early 2000s, when Thessaloniki was shaken by the scandal of illegal VAT refunds. Shell companies, with owners ranging from drug addicts to the homeless, appeared to be conducting intra-community transactions and receiving vast sums as tax refunds. The exports, according to case documents, never took place.
From 1999, alongside legitimate trade, the then 38-year-old businessman began to declare fictitious exports of photographic paper to Bulgaria. Through these he is said to have received large sums from VAT refunds. He subsequently moved into setting up shell companies in order to claim even larger amounts. Hundreds of billions of drachmas are reported to have been paid out for non-existent exports.
The 66-year-old is said to have had direct cooperation with a network of perjured tax officials, who approved illegal VAT refunds. For years his name appeared on the court dockets of the Crown and District Courts in Thessaloniki. Despite the convictions, he managed to avoid prison. In total, 133 years of imprisonment and incarceration had accumulated against him based on decisions from various courts in Thessaloniki.
Arrest in Panama and return to Greece
In 2019 an Interpol Red Notice was activated and the 66-year-old was arrested in Panama, where he had fled as a fugitive from justice. His extradition to Greece took place for three convictions concerning forgery offences.
For one case he was acquitted. For the second the sentence was reduced, while for the third he was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. He filed an appeal for annulment and the court granted him a suspension of sentence execution. Thus, once again, he found himself outside prison — and disappeared once more.
The defence's legal argument
The arrest in Lamia does not mean the case is closed. From the defence's side, a critical legal argument is already being raised: the 66-year-old cannot be imprisoned for all the remaining decisions.
The argument is based on the fact that extradition from Panama concerned exclusively three decisions for forgery. For the remaining tax evasion cases the extradition request had been withdrawn, as in Panama tax evasion is not a criminal offence and therefore his surrender for these was not possible. The defence invokes the principle of reciprocity and the principle of specificity in extradition law.
Source: Ta Nea