Greece professors ‘spent £172m EU cash on luxuries’

Up to 20 professors from two Athens universities are alleged to have misused £172 million of European Union research and development cash, using it to fund a life of luxury.

The claim, reported in respected Greek magazine Proto, has caused outrage — not least in Germany which underwrote Greece to the tune of billions this year to prop up the euro.

Proto's headline was: "Mr Professor, where did you get the Porsche, then?" The European Union anti-fraud unit, Olaf, confirmed it is investigating the professors.

It is claimed that over 10 years, the academics — who would normally earn between £1,300 and £1,700 a month at most — drove up the costs of their work and funnelled the cash to bogus mailbox firms which they set up in Cyprus. They spent the money on a "fabulous lifestyle", building villas, taking holidays and buying fast cars and fine wine, according to Proto.

The scandal has prompted claims of an almost total lack of checks within the EU to prevent such fraud.

Germany's Bild newspaper reported that European Union investigators have searched houses together with Greek police and state lawyers, and have seized "extensive" documentation.