Xanthi FC shares belonging to alleged Greek-Australian fraudster Bill Papas were frozen by Greek authorities, announced President of Greece’s Money Laundering Authority, Charalambos Vourliotis.
According to SDNA, the shares were seized as a result of an ongoing investigation into potential money laundering in Greek football.
The honourary prosecutor of the Supreme Court and former senior sports prosecutor of the country has targeted, in the first phase, veteran referees, in the context of a search for black money in football.
They are checked for possible black money from bribes and match-fixing.
The Money Laundering Authority froze all his assets he faces accusations of fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars from at least three international banks.
His property was seized, based on evidence from Australian Justice. At the same time, the shares of PAE Xanthi were frozen.
Finally, it should be noted that according to the official site of PAE, Bill Papas is the president and CEO of the company.
Bill Papas is accused of orchestrating one of the biggest frauds in Australian history — an alleged $500 million swindle of Westpac and the local branches of two global lenders, Sumitomo and Societe Generale.
The colourful businessman and soccer identity has evaded banks, liquidators and even an arrest warrant.
Papas, a former president of Sydney Olympic soccer club, fled to Greece in June 2021 just weeks before major bank Westpac lodged civil Federal Court proceedings against Forum, alleging it was the victim of a potential major fraud.
That court issued an arrest warrant for Papas in December, on contempt of court charges, for allegedly breaching freezing orders. He is yet to respond to the allegations but has long held out to investigators and contends the matter is a misunderstanding that will be resolved.
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