Sagias and Partners Law Firm | View firm profile
Our law firm has successfully handled a very difficult and complicated criminal case concerning felony embezzlement with an alleged damage of € 910.000,00 and felony infidelity of funds with an alleged damage of € 164.000,00 committed by the legal representative of a Societe Anonyme Company. The case was tried by the Kalamata Three-Member Felony Appeals Court at first instance and the Kalamata Five-Member Felony Appeals Court at second instance.
The charges related to the commission of the above offences by our client against a société anonyme, which operated a local TV channel in the Peloponnese, of which he had served as CEO until 2011. Some years later, the next board of directors of the company filed a criminal complaint against our client, accusing him of allegedly committing the aforementioned felonies. They also filed 2 civil lawsuits against him claiming the aforementioned amounts (in total). Both civil lawsuits were upheld by the Multimember Civil Court of Kalamata. Both civil decisions had become final.
The level of difficulty of the case lies in the fact that the charges had already been confirmed by 2 final decisions of the civil courts, which actually ordered our client to compensate the company. The accusations were also confirmed by a report prepared by SOL SA, one of the most well-known audit firms in Greece.
Our law firm achieved, with strong legal and factual arguments, the dismissal of 2 of the 3 above charges by the Kalamata Three-Member Felony Court of 1st instance. In particular, despite the existence of the above irrevocable civil judgments and the report of SOL SA, the court accepted our claims that there is no legal obligation for the criminal court to adopt the previous judgment of the civil court on the same facts, even if it is irrevocable and that the penal courts have independent judgement. Therefore, the court of 1st instance acquitted our client of the crime of misappropriation, convicted him for embezzlement of 261.000,00 € and sentenced him to 4 years’ imprisonment with probation.
Then in the court of appeals, we managed to prove that one of the entries in the audit firm’s report was fictitious, resulting in the downgrading of the charge of embezzlement from felony to misdemeanor, due to the amount. In this way our client was completely acquitted of this charge as well, due to the statute of limitations of the misdemeanor.
The significance of this case lies in the fact that it highlights the independence of criminal justice from civil justice.