Cognitera responds with a cease-and-desist letter in response to an article in the “Manifesto.” The newspaper insists on substantive answers.
The company Cognitera to the “Manifesto” article published on Thursday, June 18, 2026, titled “The Great Silence of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office during the Semandrakou-Tycheropoulou period.”
This was preceded by a letter from the chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. P. Papadopoulos, in which he offered his services to the newspaper while simultaneously reproaching us for not having sought and published the company’s position.
The cease-and-desist letter unfortunately attempts to link Thursday’s article to the former vice president of OPEKEPE Dimitra Chalikia (the media outlet is also cited for reporting Ms. Chalikia’s statements in other media or the social media platforms) while subsequently an attempt is made to refute the information presented in the article in question, citing “offensive, inaccurate, and false claims.”
They call on us to agree that “the newspaper ‘TO MANIFESTO’ states that it was misled by unreliable sources and unverified information, which led it to publish an article that damages the reputation and credibility of the company “COGNITERA S.A.”, which it hereby retracts,” and that “the statements made in the newspaper’s June 18, 2026, edition, do not correspond to the truth, were not based on verified and reliable information, and have absolutely no connection to the actions, conduct, or general business activities of the company “COGNITERA A.E.”.”
However:
The “Manifesto” article refers to the responsibilities of OPEKEPE for the choices that were made and the fact that the established procedures were not followed. It also highlights the stance of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which, despite the specific complaints , does not focus on the substance of the matter. Among other things, the article focuses on the decisions made by Simandrakos and Tycheropoulou and the period that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office chose to exclude from the attachments.
Cogniterahas chosen, through an out-of-court settlement, to act as defense counsel for OPEKEPE, the very organization that was supposed to oversee its contractors.
Cognitera confirms the statement in the “Manifesto” that the founding members of this newly established company were individuals who had previously held dominant positions in OPEKEPE’s management, who also held management positions at Neuropublic and ultimately decided to branch out on their own.
“Cognitera S.A. was founded in June 2020 by five cooperative companies of the Agricultural Cooperative ‘Union of Agrinio,’ one of the country’s largest and most historic agricultural cooperatives, active in the cooperative sector since 1930 and engaged in a wide range of activities across many sectors,” it notes, among other things, in the extrajudicial notice.
In response to actual events such as the problems documented, it chooses to cite the “report by Deloitte on the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) in June 2022, that is, from that time period, where you can view and compare relevant data, which states that the transition to gov.gr is working as a catalyst in favor of the citizen,” a fact that was never disputed by the newspaper.
Regarding the established and confirmed error rate, the company’s response shifts the focus to the legality of the payments and the jurisdiction of OPEKEPE. However, the issue is not who signed off on the payments. It concerns which information system performed the mandatory cross-checks that precede every payment.
Consequently, due to the European Commission’s oversight of OPEKEPE and the deadlocks that had arisen, the contract was signed with the consortium of companies Neuropublic-Cognitera, the latter choosing to respond by pointing out that the legal procedures were followed, a fact that was never disputed by the newspaper.
“The conclusion of the contract was the result of the electronic International Open Tender, which was conducted in accordance with the provisions of Law 4412/2016, as amended and in force, and, of course, after it underwent the pre-contractual review by the Court of Auditors required by law,” the report notes.
The question that remains unanswered is what led Cognitera to send a pre-litigation notice regarding a news article referring to OPEKEPE’s management responsibilities. “The beginning of the complete collapse and turmoil for our country was the inability of those in positions of responsibility within the organization and at the Ministry of Rural Development to successfully manage the multifaceted and complex problems during the period from July 2022 to the end of December 2023,” the letter states.
It should be noted that Cognitera’s entire extrajudicial letter to “Manifesto” will be published (Monday, June 22, 2026) on the official website tomanifesto.gr due to its length. In addition, tomorrow’s edition (Tuesday, June 23, 2026) will feature the company’s own responses to a series of critical issues.
