The former accountant of the Grand Lodge of Greece, who was accused of embezzling 714,000 euros, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Three-Member Criminal Court of Appeal.
It is a sordid case that began to preoccupy the judiciary since the end of 2015. In an investigation carried out a few months ago, data journalists revealed unknown details of this shocking case.
Read in detail what we wrote some time ago: The indicted accountant, the Embezzlement of Thousands of Euros and the Secret of Greek Masonry
The Court did not recognize any mitigation for the former accountant of the Grand Lodge and granted him a suspended sentence until the case is heard by the Court of Appeal.
It should be noted that during his plea before the investigating judge, the accountant had denied that he had embezzled money and had attributed the deficit found to “the result of internal mismanagement or even bad faith and malfeasance by members of the Grand Lodge”.
The accountant further stated that he was “targeted” to absolve those in charge of the case and that “his initial admission of embezzlement was made under pressure and threats”.
The accountant’s allegations were not convincing. Last September, the Judicial Council issued a verdict ordering the accountant to be tried before the Third Criminal Court of Appeal for the offense of embezzlement, fully adopting the prosecutor’s proposal. The Judicial Council also decided not to charge the secretary with the offense of instigating embezzlement.
By the same order, the prosecutions that had been brought for the offense of moral instigation in embezzlement and the embezzlement of about 25 members of the administrations of the Grand Lodge had ceased.
In fact, many of these persons were among those who had identified the deficiencies and had brought the case to justice, but because of their position as members of administrations, they were considered by the judiciary to be responsible themselves.
Besides, after the discovery of the deficit, an internal war began in the Greek masonry with lawsuits and complaints on both sides.
