GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias Anagnostopoulos and Alexandros Tsagkalidis, Anagnostopoulos
7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation
It is usual to have civil or administrative enforce - ment, either by means of the private pursuit of claims (eg, the civil claim of one entity or person against another) or by means of the law in cases of tax offences, subsidies fraud, money launder - ing, securities fraud, bribery and cartel offences. These measures are imposed by the competent agency according to the entity’s status (eg, the Capital Market Commission, the Revenue Service, special departments of the Ministry of Finance). As a general rule, the competent agency for imposing these types of sanctions is the one supervising the entity’s registration, licences, regulation, etc. 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies Jurisdiction rules are set out expressly by the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure and are oblig - atory. Depending on the place where the offence was committed, the corresponding Prosecutor’s Office will initially have jurisdiction over the case. It should, however, be noted that the Prosecu - tor’s Office for Financial and Economic Crime may claim jurisdiction over major corruption and bribery cases. In such instances, they will handle the case during the preliminary inquiry; howev - er, at later stages of the criminal proceedings, jurisdiction will return to the competent criminal authorities (eg, the investigating judge, the judi - cial council and the court) of the place of the commission of the offence. Moreover, it should be highlighted that the pros - ecuting authorities may also proceed with over - seas mutual legal assistance requests with the aim of retrieving information located abroad, as well as with spontaneous exchange of informa - tion with their corresponding authorities.
Article 263A provides for leniency for individu - als who inform and/or assist the prosecuting authorities on corruption cases, depending on the procedural stage of the case and on the level of their assistance. Notably, if, during the investigation, the perpetrator of an act of bribery contributes substantial information regarding the participation of a public official, they will receive a reduced, or even suspended, sentence. 7.5 Recent Landmark Investigations or Decisions Based on the findings of a financial investigation conducted by third parties, it was revealed that, from 2001 to 2017, the management of a Greek- based international company that designs, man - ufactures and distributes luxury jewellery and watches had falsified its financial statements by inflating its sales, profits and equity through virtual purchases and sales. These fictitious transactions allegedly took place between 27 companies in different parts of the world, mainly in Asia. After a multi-month trial hearing before the Court of Appeal of Athens, sitting as a first instance court on 26 June 2024, five individuals, including the former chairman and the CEO of the company, were found guilty of fraud, market manipulation and money laundering, while six other defendants were acquitted on all charges. Other major investigations have been conducted in relation to multinational companies that have reportedly been systematically giving money to public officials to secure awards of multi - million-euro government contracts in respect of advanced communication systems, medical supplies and military expenditure (such as Sie - mens, Johnson & Johnson/DePuy, HDW/Ferro - staal and STN). Investigations have also targeted acts of corruption of former government officials
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