June 7, 2012
ATHENS (AFP) - A Greek businessman got more than he bargained for when a complaint about a maid stealing a million euros ($1.3 million) earned him the unwelcome attention of the taxman, ANA news agency reported Wednesday.
After the millionaire reported the theft of the cash from a safe in his villa in a chic Athens suburb, prosecutors ordered the national fraud office Sdoe to investigate whether the money was properly declared.
He told police that the money was proceeds from a recent property sale and that he was about to re-invest it, and that he thought his safe was more secure than putting it in the bank in the current crisis.
The incident comes just as the country seeks to clamp down on tax evasion, which has been blamed for contributing to bringing the country to the brink of eurozone ejection.
Police recovered half the cash from the alleged thief meanwhile, a 33-year-old from Georgia, who said the remainder had already been invested in her home country.
