Shocking dialogues between the blackmailers brought to light

For the third consecutive day, Sunday, the justice system is dealing with the loan-shark ring uncovered in Northern Greece, with 19 persons expected to testify today.

Some of them were freed on bail but on Saturday alone, 8 people were remanded in custody after a long session.

Tax collectors, a journalist, a Serbian former footballer and bankers are but a few of the many people participating in the ring.

The file is endless and inside there are 3,500 gripping transcribed telephone dialogues between the defendants and their victims

Most of them bring chills down the spine but especially one of them, between ERT3 (one of the state television channels based in Thessaloniki, N. Greece) journalist Yiorgos Feretis and Markos Karaberis is worth reading. The latter is seeking information about a handwritten note that one of their victims - L. Mariolis, who jumped off his balcony - left behind. The call was made two days after the victim's death.

Κ: Yep, I heard the news. OK.

F: And I found out even more.

Κ: Go on then.

F: Well, before jumping off his balcony he had shot himself with an air rifle.

Κ: Who?

F: The deceased.

Κ: No way. I had no idea about that.

F: That’s the rumour.

Κ: So, this is how he committed suicide, then.

F: You should see his suicide note… he wrote it as if it were a poem.

In the same dialogue, Karaberis calls the dead businessman a “wonderful guy”, specifically saying, “I loved him like a brother”.

Many more have been published and all of them seem to have a common characteristic: they are governed by a tone of sarcasm in the way the defendants talk when referring to their victims.