Greek army chief allegedly bought penthouse with 'black money': report

The head of Greece's military has allegedly used illicit funds to buy a house in the capital Athens, according to local media reports.

The National Intelligence Service (EYP) found that Chief of General Staff General Konstantinos Floros allegedly paid just $650,000 (€600,000) in “black money” for a luxury penthouse with a market value of $1.3 million (€1.2 million) in 2021, the daily Documento alleged on Monday in its continued coverage of the illegal surveillance scandal that erupted in Greece last summer.

The newspaper found that Floros appears to have purchased the property in his son-in-law’s name, instead of his own.

It said the EYP suspects he used illegal funds for the transaction, without providing evidence for the allegation.

"The very fact of monitoring the chief of staff, with an object of interest not for any security reason but to gather information about his life, alone caused concern about the functioning of democracy," the daily stressed.

It also claimed that the government blackmailed Floros over his “dark financial transactions.”

In a related development, the main opposition Syriza-PS party accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his government of placing national security at risk.

“The morbidness of Mitsotakis’ parastatal apparatus has, unfortunately, also infected the leadership of the armed forces,” the party said in a statement.

Kostas Vaxevanis, the owner and editor-in-chief of Documento, said the country is witnessing "a perversion of the constitution."

The criminal responsibility of the surveillance scandal falls upon Mitsotakis, he told private radio station Sto Kokkino.

He challenged Floros to file a lawsuit against him, stating that such a move will "free us to use any means of evidence."

READ MORE: Greece keen on unsustainable military spending despite economic woes

Surveillance scandal

The ever-expanding surveillance scandal exploded into the Greek public realm last summer, when Thanasis Koukakis, a well-known financial journalist in Greece, reported that his cell phone had been tapped with Israeli-made Predator spyware.

Things escalated after Nikos Androulakis, leader of the PASOK-KINAL opposition party and a member of the European Parliament, also revealed that he was targeted with Predator spyware, triggering a parliamentary probe on the matter.

On Aug. 4, Panagiotis Kontoleon, who then headed the EYP, admitted before a committee of lawmakers that the agency was spying on Koukakis.

Days later, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis disclosed that Androulakis was also wiretapped but denied any knowledge of the operation.

Mitsotakis was left with no option but to force Kontoleon to resign, as well as his top aide and nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis.

On Nov. 6, Documento published a list of 33 people who were allegedly spied on by the EYP on Dimitriadis' direct orders.

They included Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolaos Chardalias, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Labor Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, and former National Security Adviser Alexandros Diakopoulos.

A later report by the daily claimed that the EYP, which works directly under Mitsotakis, also wiretapped Floros, Chief of Land Forces Charalambos Lalousis, and Theodoros Lagios, the general director of defence investments and armaments.

Opposition parties blame Mitsotakis for the scandal and have called for his government to hold snap elections, a measure he rejects.

The European Commission and European Parliament have also said they are closely monitoring developments related to the scandal.

READ MORE: Another Greek politician accuses Mitsotakis govt of illegal surveillance