BRUSSELS – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) which specializes in corruption cases, has now stepped into the case of unlawful Predator spyware being used in Greece and tax evasion tied to companies behind it.

In an exclusive report, the news site EURACTIV said it was told by sources which weren’t identified that the investigation was requested by the European Parliament’s PEGA committee that was set up to look into Pegasus spyware.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/exclusive-eu-prosecutor-probes-greek-predatorgate/

Members of the committee came to Athens after revelations that Predator – whose company had offices in Athens and was licensed to sell it – had been installed on the phone of an investigative journalist, Thanasis Koukakis.

Nikos Androulakis, a Member of the European Parliament who is head of Greece’s third-largest party, the PASOK-KINAL Movement for Change, had his phone bugged by Greece’s National Intelligence Service EYP and said an attempt was made to also put Predator on it.

Suspicious, he took the phone to an EU Parliament lab which found the attempt to infect his phone although the government said it’s not using the spyware but after the story broke quickly banned its sale or use.

The PEGA Committee inquiry focused on the illegal export of Predator spyware from Greece to countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, as well as allegations the companies involved were engaged in tax evasion.

An EPPO spokesperson reached by the site refused to confirm or deny that there is an ongoing investigation.”This is so as not to endanger the ongoing procedures and their outcome,” the spokesperson said.

Two  sources told EURACTIV that the EU prosecutor has, in recent weeks, received specific information from Greek journalists investigating the wiretapping scandal after the government refused to meet with a visiting PEGA committee delegation.

“The persons who testified to the prosecutors submitted evidence proving that the administration of (Prime Minister) Kyriakos Mitsotakis facilitated the proliferation of Intellexa’s Predator spyware to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Madagascar, and Bangladesh by granting export licences through the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” one source said.

Mitsotakis was swept up in a surveillance scandal around the phone bugging of 15,475 people he defended as legal because it was for “national security” and said they wouldn’t be identified but denied using Predator.

At the time, government spokesperson Yannis Oikonomou admitted that the Foreign Ministry granted licenses to Intellexa, the company selling Predator and that all procedures were followed – before it was then banned.

The issue of granting export licences was first reported by investigative outlet Inside Story and the New York Times, prompting the European Commission to demand an explanation but was ignored.

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Yannis Smyrlis, the former Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry who signed the illegal spyware export licences, resigned but was then named Deputy Director of New Democracy, with elections coming May 21.

The EU prosecutor is examining whether the Greek government violated Regulation (EU) 2021/821 for the so-called “dual-use” products (i.e. products that require a special export licence because they can also be used in order to cause harm) to favor Intellexa, said the story written by Sarantis Michalopoulos.

Reporters United, a Greek network of investigative journalists, said that Intellexa’s shareholders were reportedly linked to Mitsotakis’ nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis, who was his Secretary-General an liaison to EYP.

Dimitris resigned in August, 2022 after the phone bugging surfaced and Mitsotakis – who made EYP report directly to him when he took office in July, 2019, was embarrassed to have not been told about it.

Another source told EURACTIV that the information received by EU prosecutor Laura Kövesi’s team in Athens reveals “enormous tax evasion” by the companies involved in the surveillance scandal.

“Undeclared payments, fake invoices and triangular transactions are some of the serious tax crimes which appear to have been committed by the Greek companies Intellexa and Krikel, the Irish company Thalestris, and by the Cypriot companies associated with them,” the second source said.

“Hundreds of fake invoices and tax statements have been submitted to the European Prosecutor to document fraud and how EU’s interests are affected,” the source added.

The report said that there’s a trail of evidence leading to Chadera Enterprises Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, according to a document seen by EURACTIV.

Chadera belongs to Tal Dilian, a former Israeli army officer, who owns 65 percent of the Greek firm Intellexa. The remaining 35% of Intellexa belongs to the Cypriot company Santinomo Limited.

The government in September, 2022 denied submitting contracts signed between these companies and ministries at a parliamentary special inquiry committee on the wiretapping scandal, the report added.

The second source said that the suspicion of tax fraud automatically triggers the involvement of the EU prosecutor under a recent mutual cooperation agreement on combating financial crime signed between Greek tax authorities and the EPPO.

Koukakis said he had reached out to EPPO after his phone was infected and told the site that, “The journalistic investigation has progressed to such an extent that the involvement of the European Prosecutor’s Office was imperative. Mainly due to the relevant requests of the European Parliament.”

“This case will be a hard first test for the quality and depth of the cooperation of the European Prosecutor’s Office with the Greek tax authorities,” he said, the bugging and spyware driving him not to use the phone when contacting sources as well.