Greek “underworld banker” faces 10 years in prison for organized crime allegations

A 10-year jail sentence was recommended against 53-year-old Thanas B., who is suspected of criminal underworld banking for hundreds of millions of euros. B. admitted in court in Rotterdam on Thursday that he has "done things that were wrong." He received messages and then sent them on to other people.

"I was the messenger, which was a gigantic mistake. But apart from this, I know nothing about it," he emphasized several times. His lawyer vehemently denied that he was 'an immense underworld banker.'

B. was arrested in Athens on May 31 last year at the Netherlands' request and has been in a cell for just over a year now. The man is said to have used encrypted communications to manage a courier network in the Netherlands that moved almost a quarter of a billion euros in cash for criminals between June 2020 and March 2021.

The prosecutor was surprised about the "ease" with which the suspect sent employers to pick up money and take it away. "He simply did not care whether he financed liquidations, violence, or drug trafficking and associated environmental crime," said the officer.

The network allegedly worked from various offices in the Netherlands, including Wateringen and Amsterdam. Members of the courier network were sentenced to year-long jail sentences earlier this year. Prosecutors do not agree that B. was only a messenger. "He is really selling himself short with this, to his own advantage."

At the end of last year, the Greek and the Public Prosecution Service investigated the possibility of making prior agreements on a possible punishment, but this was not successful. Therefore, the case still had to be dealt with on the merits.