Former and current managers of Greece's dominant electricity utility PPC have been charged with fraud involving sums of money handed over to Public Power Company's labour union over the past decade, court officials said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for PPC/DEH, which is 51% state owned and reported a record loss in the last quarter of 2011, declined to comment, saying the firm had not been officially informed yet. The union, GENOP, has denied any wrongdoing.
Corruption and over-spending of public funds are endemic in Greece, hampering its efforts to cut expenditure and reform its economy as part of a multi-billion euro bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Chairmen, chief executives and members of PPC's boards between 1999 and 2010 were charged with financially damaging the state, and the company's GENOP representatives with being complicit in the wrongdoing, one of the court officials said.
"The financial crime unit's investigation showed overpriced travel and the assignment of studies to unionists' relatives, studies that were paid for but were never delivered," said the court official who declined to be named.
If convicted, the accused could face life imprisonment.
The prosecutor launched a probe after the public administration inspector found that PPC had illegally granted about 5 million euros to GENOP in 2005-2006 for overpriced travel and other costs, such as expensive gifts and lunches, according to the court officials.
In his report, the inspector also said that in 2008-2010 GENOP received tens of thousands of euros from PPC to fund labour action and other expenses.
Responding to press reports of alleged irregularities on Tuesday, PPC announced it would set up an ethics bureau to prevent any such actions in the future. It also threatened to take legal action against any individuals found to have caused damage to the firm.
The GENOP union denied any wrongdoing and urged authorities to open unionists' bank accounts.
"If they find a single euro deposited (illegally) in my account, I won't just resign but commit suicide," GENOP's president, Nikos Fotopoulos, told state TV on Tuesday.
