Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a readout of Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis's visit to the Authority for Combating Money Laundering from Criminal Activities, highlighting recent enforcement work including the identification and freezing of cryptocurrency linked to a major theft and the Authority's 2024 operational results. The ministry also outlined institutional support, including legislative initiatives and more than EUR 1 million to upgrade the Authority's information systems and technical autonomy. In the cryptocurrency case, information received by the Authority led to the detection of a suspicious transaction by a registered user on the platform of a Greek crypto-asset exchange services provider; analysis of the user's Ethereum wallet, using a specialist transaction-analysis tool, linked the funds to what was described as the largest cryptocurrency theft in the sector's history, attributed to a notorious hacking group. A freezing order was issued for the wallet and the criminal proceeds it contained, and the case file was sent to the competent prosecutorial authority; the release also notes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a public alert on the freezing of related transactions. For 2024, the Authority reported more than EUR 700 million in criminal proceeds, 200 asset-freezing orders covering bank accounts, real estate and vehicles, and around 30,000 suspicious transaction reports and other information items, with EUR 10 million in frozen funds expected to be returned to victims through international cooperation. Sanctions work linked to Ukraine included checks on 2,500 individuals and 1,500 legal entities and the freezing of assets in Greece valued at EUR 3 million, while 170,000 persons were in scope for asset-declaration filings with 15,000 cases referred to the judicial authorities. The ministry's announced IT investment comprises EUR 550,000 for computing infrastructure and EUR 500,000 to modernise the integrated information system.

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