ATHENS – Nine years after the case began, three family members and two associates of the Folli Follie jewelry and accessory maker who were found guilty of falsifying accounts and financial crimes were sentenced to jail but the founder and his wife to house arrest.

That means Dimitris Koutsolioutsos, 83 – who got a 17-year sentence – and his wife Kaiti – sentenced to 10 years – will serve their time at home. Their son George was sentenced to 11 years and the associates also for 10 years, no names given.

Ioannis Begietis, former executive of the Asian branch of the company, who remains a fugitive, was sentenced to 15 years in absentia.

The sentences were announced a day after the court found five out of the 11 defendants in the trial guilty of forgeries, fraud, money laundering and other crimes. The other six defendants were cleared of all charges.

Koutsolioutsos and his family were also cleared of the offense of forming, directing and joining a criminal organization, the most serious of the initial charges after a prosecutor earlier recommended dropping the charges outright.

A request by the defense to suspend the sentences pending appeal was rejected, which would have let the walk free in the meantime and face no confinement nor detention despite the seriousness of the crimes, including manipulating the Athens Stock Exchange.

In 2018, the equity fund Quintessential Capital Management (QCM put out a report stating the company had deliberately overstated the number of retail outlets it operates worldwide and raised concerns over its reported finances.

A 2020 audit from PricewaterhouseCoopers said the company’s major shareholders, the Koutsolioutsos family, ran a fraud scheme for at least 17 years that escaped supervisory authorities, gaining them millions of euros in illicit profits.

The others accused were former shareholders and executives in the case that authorities earlier said included fraud of ($448.31 million) from the company by falsifying balance sheets and other financial crimes.