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The husband of Greece's National Natural Gas System Operator CEO was arrested in Athens for fraud

The husband of the managing director of Greece's National Natural Gas System Operator-DESFA was arrested in Athens by Greek police in cooperation with the Italian financial police (Guardia di Finanza), against whom there were pending court cases and a conviction for six years in prison.

As Italy's Il Giorno reports, Francesco Acerbi was sentenced to six years in prison for disappearing with millions of euros entrusted to him by 13 wealthy Italian families. He was arrested in Athens by order of the Milan prosecutor Roberta Colangelo and is now awaiting extradition to be sent to an Italian prison to serve his sentence, but also to stand trial for fraud against a client and for the bankruptcy of his company, Advisory.

According to the Italian publication, he has already been convicted in the first instance for both of these cases, but his trial in the second degree is pending.

Who is Francesco Acerbi?

54-year-old Francesco Akerbi from Cremona is married to Maria Rita Galli, managing director of DESFA. He has worked as a financial advisor, but in the past he had practiced the profession without the necessary licenses.

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He had managed to attract some wealthy investors who had entrusted him with a total of 165 million euros. With the help of a secretary, who has pleaded guilty, he had begun forging his clients' signatures on purchase contracts, without the parties knowing anything.

He was sentenced in the first and second degree to imprisonment for more than six years. About a year ago, however, on the eve of the validation of the decision by the Supreme Court, Acerbi disappeared.

However, the Guardia di Finanza had never stopped looking for him, finding – as noted by Il Giorno – traces of him in Greece, where his wife works and lives. He was found at his wife's house where he was arrested by the Greek police, who picked him up and took him to the detention center, awaiting his extradition.

  • Published in Greece

London: The Greek "Wolf of Wall Street" convicted of a Ponzi scheme

He had been attracting investors since late 2013. He promised them returns of 5% per month with risk-free trading and a minimum investment of £100,000. He himself with his personal property – he told them – would guarantee their money.

This concrns 41-year-old Anthony Constantinou, a Greek-born tycoon who was recently convicted after being found guilty of 7 counts of fraud and money laundering after a trial that lasted almost two months.

At the offices of Capital World Markets

According to Bloomberg, as it turned out the reality was very different: In the offices of the trading company he ran (Capital World Markets) on the 21st floor of a skyscraper in the City of London, the charts on his traders' computer screens were fake, as were the claims surrounding his wealth. The police raid took place on March 3, 2015, following a message from a former employee who alerted authorities to the risk of the "pyramid" collapsing.

Constantinou's defiantly lavish lifestyle (he had married his wife in a $3.1 million ceremony in Santorini, with guests flown in by private jet) was financed by money put into his company by small investors. The amount of the "pyramid" fraud is estimated at 70 million British pounds.

He disappeared during his trial. Weeks later he was arrested in Bulgaria carrying forged documents, but was released and is still on the lamb.

The myth

Constantinou's company sought out clients at conferences and among acquaintances, to whom he "sold" investments they did not understand.

Businessman on Crete loses money to fraudsters posing as local gvt

A well-known Cretan businessman fell victim to wily scammers and saw his company's account stripped bare - within seconds!

The impressive thing is that although he himself almost immediately realized that a scam was being set up, he did not manage to save the money, also because of the inaction shown by the bank despite contacting them immediately!

It was all done in a matter of minutes.

The alleged phone call from the district

The Cretan businessman based in Heraklion, according to information from cretalive.gr, received a phone call from an "employee of the region of Crete" who mentioned his name and particulars in order, he said, to deisburse an invoice owed by the region to him, an amount of around 700 euros for an event that had taken place at his place.

This particular scammer was not just convincing, but absolutely clear, as he mentioned the invoice details, the dates and even the name of the supervisor who signed the payment document!

  • Published in Greece
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