Police uncover two criminal gangs engaged in prescription fraud at the expense of EOPYY

The Financial Police Directorate on Monday announced the dismantling of two different criminal organisations involved in criminal fraud at the expense of the National Organisation for Provision of Healthcare Services (EOPYY) through the use of fraudulent prescriptions.

The busts followed an investigation lasting several months to determine their mode of operation and make-up, leading to 16 arrests during an operation conducted the previous Friday.
According to the police investigation, the group made illegal use of 3,516 AMKA (social security) numbers to issue 90,186 fake prescriptions, which cost EOPYY sums in excess of 3.5 million euros.
Among those arrested were four doctors working for public healthcare facilities in Attica and Viotia, the owners and employees of eight pharmacies in Attica, a drug company sales representative and one person accused of acting as a mediator. The activity of the groups is believed to date back to at least January 2020, while they had similar goals, modes of action and even some of the same members.
Specifically, both organisations began by systematically issuing fake prescriptions using the AMKA of primarily foreign individuals, who had either already left the country or who were in jail or in various facilities, so that they would not be able to detect the fake prescriptions. In order to maximise their profits, the group also used the AMKA numbers of uninsured individuals, whose share of cost of drugs is zero.
Using these, in collaboration with the companies and pharmacies of their accomplices, they would then file paperwork claiming that the prescriptions had been filled, forging the patients’ signatures, and claim the cost from EOPYY. The illegally prescribed drugs would then be sold via the same pharmacies and the doctors in Greece and abroad. The revenues from these illegal sales would be concealed by issuing fake retail sales receipts or kept in bank safety deposit boxes.
The drugs prescribed included narcotics and other psychotropic substances, while they included medication for which there is a shortage in both Greece and abroad.
During the investigation, the police also uncovered the illegal activity of a pharmaceutical warehouse owner, who was selling pharmaceutical products that could be dangerous to human health, with one of the pharmacies involved in the prescriptions scam used as an outlet.
The suspects under arrest were charged with forming a criminal organisation, fraud, issuing fake certifications at the expense of the public sector amounting to more than 120,000 euros, collaborating to commit fraud against the public sector with damages exceeding 120,000 euros, illegal changes to a system for filing personal data, illegally retrieving the personal data and using it, money laundering and distribution of narcotics, as well as trading in harmful substances, among others.
Police raids on homes, storage facilities, surgeries, pharmacies, healthcare facilities and bank vaults yielded a number of items of evidence, such as gold, large quantities of cash, documents and thousands of the illegally prescribed drugs.
The suspects were led before a public prosecutor and referred to an examining magistrate.

source ANA-MPA

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