IKA branches around Greece under scrutiny
Authorities will be opening files at a number of branches of the IKA Social Security Foundation around Greece to ascertain whether members receiving disability pensions and other benefits deserve to do so, following the revelation in March of a scam at an Athens branch of IKA that cost the foundation some 20 million euros.
According to a report in Ethnos daily, of the nine branches that will come under particular scrutiny, three are located in Attica, one is in Crete and another is in Thessaloniki. Another four IKA branches in Attica and Crete are being investigated for issuing pensions to non-existent members.
In March, seven people were arrested in connection with a benefit scam being run out of the IKA branch in the Athens suburb of Kallithea. According to the investigation, five employees at the branch, one of whom had retired, and two of their husbands, had scammed some 20 million euros from the foundation by issuing fake benefits to people not insured with IKA and taking a cut of that money themselves.
