Former deputy mayor of Karditsa and associate of Nikos Papandreou Sotiria Bakalakou complains that she fell victim of fraud by the Vilanakis spiral as she lost 143,000 euros, was threatened with a gun and calls for an expansion of persecutions.<\/p>\n
The Sotiria Bakalakou<\/strong>, <\/strong>is among the persons included in the documentation<\/strong> which was formed by the Blackmail Department and led to the arrest of five members of the Villanakis family<\/strong>.<\/p>\n She describes that her acquaintance with Giorgos Vilanakis<\/strong> began in 2014-2017, when he represented the family in commercial transactions related to the annual Carditsa trade fair<\/strong>. According to her, during her tenure at the municipality, his financial obligations to the municipality were regularly met, which had created in her the image of a reliable partner.<\/p>\n According to her complaint, their next contact was in May 2021, when George Vilanakis invited her to his residence in Giannouli Larissa. There, she claims, he presented her with financial difficulties due to pandemic<\/strong> and deceived her by proposing to buy gold pounds<\/strong> at a price lower than the market value, even handing her pounds for inspection in order to enhance his credibility.<\/p>\n Mrs Bakalakou claims that a process of about six months followed, during which she and her ex-husband lost a total of 143,000 euros<\/strong>. According to her, when she became aware of the fraud and informed that she would go to the authorities, she was subjected to extortion<\/strong> and direct threats<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “When I realized the extent of the deception and told them I would go to the authorities, they resorted to blackmailing me. They showed me a gun<\/strong> and threatened me that my life would be in danger if I reported them,” he says.<\/p>\n The former deputy mayor claims that a key tool of the alleged perpetrators was the image of financial strength they had built through luxury homes, expensive cars and a strong social presence.<\/p>\n According to her, the most important element was their ability to adapt their behaviour to each potential victim. “They read you, identify what you want to hear and become your mirror,” she says, arguing that the manipulation was based on a combination of cajoling<\/strong>, psychological pressure and building a trusting relationship.<\/p>\n Mrs. Bakalakou describes the case as the most difficult experience of her life, noting that the greatest burden was not only the financial loss but also the severe psychological impact<\/strong> that she says accompanies victims of such cases.<\/p>\n As he explains, the solving of the case was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the victims<\/strong> and the complaints that were gradually gathered. He makes particular reference to the contribution of a relative of another victim, with whom he coordinated actions since 2024, as well as the work of the DEA’s Anti-Extortion Unit.<\/p>\n She states that she has decided to speak out publicly in order to inform other citizens of the methods she claims were used against her, stressing that silence<\/strong> and the feeling of shame<\/strong> often prevent victims from reporting such cases.<\/p>\n In addition, he reveals that he has taken new legal action<\/strong>, asking the relevant prosecutor to extend the prosecution to additional offences and persons. Among other things, she asks for consideration of upgrading the charge to a completed felony extortion<\/strong>, as well as the investigation of the possible involvement of additional persons.<\/p>\n With regard to the compensation of the victims’ damages, Ms. Bakalakou says that there have been contacts for compensation<\/strong> with some victims, while she claims that a private investigation is underway to identify cash<\/strong> and possible routes of black money<\/strong>, the findings of which are expected to be delivered to the competent authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The former deputy mayor of Karditsa and associate of Nikos Papandreou, Sotiria Bakalakou, denounces that she was a victim of fraud by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From golden pounds to complaints<\/b><\/h3>\n
“They read you and become your mirror”<\/b><\/h3>\n
New legal action and asset search<\/b><\/h3>\n