Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informational reading.

by Georgia Linardou With illegal interest exceeding even 100% per year, with violence no longer stopping at threats, and with a significant percentage of retirees participating among the perpetrators, usury in our country has moved from an economic crime into the category of organized crime. And it is perhaps the only crime in which, instead of the perpetrator meeting the victim, the opposite happens! “Now violence may even kill”, argues the special secretary of the Ministry of Justice and jurist Marinos Mich. Skandamis, who is the only person to date to have produced a comprehensive study entitled “Usury. A diachronic-criminological approach”. The unseen side In the age of spreads, loans, economic dead ends and the “reborn” usurious mentality, he reminds us that in our country the number one law passed on 18 January 1832 was “on the loan of five million piastres; it concerned internal borrowing for the needs of the struggle and provided for interest of 8% payable at the end of each semester”! Seventy-eight years later, we are again talking about interest and usury... M. Skandamis spent four years searching and recording in courts, judgments, courts of appeal and interviews with loan sharks and “victims”. “The crime of usury belongs to that category of crimes whose unseen side is dominant”, he points out. And this unseen side is sustained by a relationship of dependence between perpetrator and victim. “The victim of the crime of usury is not impersonal and anonymous, as happens with many forms of modern economic criminality. Even when usury is practiced under the systematic method and control of organized crime, the perpetrator and the victim are linked by a relationship of real reciprocity”. It is no accident that “the loan shark does not seek contact with the victim from the outset; rather, the victim seeks contact with him. The loan shark remains in a waiting position and does not focus his criminal targeting on a specific victim, nor does he act before being disturbed by that victim”. The first contact with the victim is not made directly, but through a person whom the loan shark knows and trusts. If anyone shows “aggressive behavior” as the initiative in this relationship, it is none other than the victim. What is the professional profile of the perpetrators? Merchants (33.33%), self-employed professionals (33.33%), public or private employees (6.60%), retirees (20.14%), persons living on income from property (6.60%). And if the high participation rate of retirees in usury is striking, according to M. Skandamis it is not explained by low pensions or economic insecurity, since, as he argues: “It is difficult to attribute the fact to retirees’ need to supplement their income. It seems more likely that the usurious activity was practiced habitually even before their retirement, and that it continues after the interruption or cessation of their work”. Fear In most of the cases identified by the authorities and brought before Justice, a “lack of accomplices” is observed. The failure to record accomplices and networks is due to various reasons, such as: * The nature of the specific cases. * The role of the front-man loan shark, that is, an intermediary person who conceals the real usurer. * The downgraded role of accomplices (bearers of checks, intermediaries, etc.), who are not sued by the victims. * The fear of victims to name more than one person, in order to avoid the risk of a multi-front court battle. Within this framework there is also the statement made before the authorities by G.G., a victim of usury in the city of Ioannina: “I could put 50 people in prison, but I do not do it”. As regards the average illegal interest rate, it may rise even to 139% per year. There are individual cases in which the interest rate exceeded even 500%. A characteristic case is that of a merchant who at one point came to owe loan sharks close to one billion drachmas. “At some point the bank froze my property. I turned to the loan sharks, took money so that I could pay the bank and release my property. Because I was a good payer, they charged me 5% interest per month. But if I brought them a promissory note maturing in five months, they calculated 5% for five months and so withheld 25% from me”. Various methods are followed for the collection procedure. Initially friendly understanding, threats, but also causing bodily harm. The death of the victim brings about the de facto extinguishment of the debt, that is, the loss of every hope the loan shark has of recovering what is owed... The... customers “Nor is the grace period excluded, which the loan shark gives to his victim so that the victim may recover financially and better service in the future the debts arising from usurious lending. This leniency is shown to good customers. That is why the procedure of the “sit down” or “stop the clock” is followed”, we read in the study by M. Skandamis. And for bad customers: “In the first stage the collectors isolate the victim, on whom they use violence, while reminding him how negligent he has been in his payments and urging him to settle his outstanding obligations immediately. The bodily injuries are mainly directed at the arms and legs (use of brass knuckles, fractures, infliction of wounds, etc.), although blows to the face or abdominal area are not avoided either”... I consider this article particularly informative. The comments and conclusions about retirees are accepted. I would also like to add that when liquidity departs, the loan shark arrives. In our day stock-market imperialism sweeps the planet and usury changes the fate of peoples. A simple example that concerns us directly as a people, as a country. How many know that great Germany is the largest loan shark by conviction? Our personal loan shark, Mrs. Merkel, borrowed through six-month bills at a negative interest rate, meaning that those who bought German bonds did not profit but paid extra to obtain them. Thus they are certain they will not lose their money. Later, if things “improve”, we shall see. According to Bundesbank data, the German Ministry of Finance raised 3.9 billion euros at an average yield below 0%, at -0.0122! It lends to Greece at 5, 6, 7, 8%. When the world realizes what they are, it will crush them. Everyone spits on the loan shark, and to put things in their place, Germany is the greatest loan shark there is. For the record, I will mention that on 07.02.1825, when the Revolution was at a difficult turning point, a loan of 2,000,000 gold pounds was concluded in London to finance the struggle. Of these, Greece received only 190,000 gold pounds! It is clear that we have always been a selected victim of usury. What I do not know precisely is why they decided to bankrupt us now, if they are not bluffing. The death of the victim brings about the de facto extinguishment of the debt. We shall see... The banks, the well-known “legal loan sharks”, also practice vile usury. They do not only practice usury; on top of that they openly STEAL from the customer who cannot resist. In London, after a long investigation by consumer representatives, the banks were forced to return the stolen money. I have worked in a large bank. A sold-out superior used to tell me “the bank NEVER loses”. He advanced; I left. Opposite lives... Thessaloniki is shaken by the well-known usury scandal. “Everyone falls from the clouds”, like shooting stars on summer nights, when they hear about usury rings. Apparently they ignore that the roots of usury are lost in antiquity. Its first shoots appeared shortly after the emergence of money in the 7th century BC. In Athens, Solon’s enactment of the seisachtheia aimed to release over-indebted households from usurious debts. Julius Caesar did something similar in Rome, and our own Louka Katseli successfully imitated him! History makes concentric circles! During the Middle Ages the Christian Church regarded interest as something generally immoral, impermissible, sinful... Across time, usury was considered the ultimate shamelessness, greed with a pretext and plunder. The First Ecumenical Council prohibited usury only for clerics. The subsequent Ecumenical Councils extended the prohibition to laypersons as well. In 1311, Pope Clement V elevated usury to heresy as hateful to God and man, condemned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian charity... With the passage of time these convictions weakened. Today interest-bearing lending, even usury, are more or less common practices in the Christian and Jewish world. By contrast, in Islamic states usury is contrary to law and religion. The entry loan shark derives, in Greek, from the words interest and glyph (to engrave, to carve). It refers descriptively to the habit of loan sharks of engraving with a stylus (a carving instrument, chisel, pocketknife) on a wooden table the interest with which they burdened their customers. Let us move, however, to the practical part with an example that touches “the mark of the nails”, describing a ruthless loan shark who lives, develops and grows rich illegally beside us, among us. A few days ago I had a unique experience. I undertook to appear as counsel for the civil claimant at the trial of a ruthless criminal, an interest-thirsty lender of large reach. He has registered 150 prenotations of mortgage on victims’ properties! The case began in 1999. In about two years the perpetrator had devoured the victim (one of many), of whom only a small pile of bones remained under the tree (a harsh scene from a documentary of the wild jungle...). Many millions from the “breaking” of checks. Two shops and two apartments were the spoils of the hyena that devoured the convenient and defenseless victim. The handling of the case was excellent. The file was fully equipped, capable through its evidence of causing multiple fractures to the mafioso defendant. Many memoranda successfully evaluated the critical substantive documents and the fiery witness statements. From the file, and in particular from the decree of the appellate judges, the X-ray of the criminal physiognomy and psyche of the man-shaped carnivorous beast emerged clearly. One hundred and fifty prenotations mean 150 families in the street, with their children cleaning windshields at traffic lights! Ultimately he was referred for trial for the felony act of usury, “by profession and by habit”. The complainant, a gaunt gazelle, visibly marked by the stigma of the victim, has always oscillated among the disastrous choices that finally led her into the wolf’s mouth. She had not only fallen victim to usury. She had repeatedly been misled by the resourceful, deceitful fraudster and had signed documents, confessions, indulgences that her almost in-law skillfully peddled to her. The scheming defendant even “placed” his son next to her daughter with deceptive promises of marriage, while the debt increased every day... “my love, my loan shark” sing the lovesick! The daughter was a victim too. Worthy indeed was the groom, the son, pride of the patron-father. Like mother, like father... Incidentally, the false bridegroom ended up with an apartment that he supposedly bought with money given to him by his... grandmother. It was not proven whether she was alive! Even today the godfather of illegal usurious gambling blackmails the complainant and threatens that he will disembowel her, kill her daughter and other similar “Christian” things! She no longer receives threats against her property because he has taken all of it! The complainant, mobile phone in hand before the trial, distributes smiles, extracts promises and constantly changes position. Her mobility before the court procedure expresses stress, anguish, fear. So many things are heard every day. Things have become savage. The Vardaris has blown this way too... With her were also two prosecution witnesses out of the five. Two have died and will have been installed by right in the special section of Paradise that hosts the victims of loan sharks! On large screens, I imagine, they will watch their perpetrators tied to chairs while little devils play in front of them and burn 500-euro banknotes! They have smart detoxification programs in hell. Modernization. I have read that they even spoke with our own Simitis! The other witness did not appear for an unknown-known reason that the extortionist defendant surely knows... Of the two witnesses, one, although talkative before the trial, ultimately proved timid and did not honor the tracksuit he wore instead of trousers! I consider him capable of going to the Areios Pagos in pajamas! Complete devaluation of everything. The crisis is the result of moral decline. Who will explain to the witness the differences between a street market and the courtroom of the three-member court of appeal for felonies? He chickened out and left the truth outside the courtroom. He was restrained and settled heavily into his chair of “I don’t know”, “I don’t remember”. The other, however, was pure poison. He too was a tragic victim of the ruthless defendant and brought to the court, with tearful eyes, frame by frame, his foretold economic death. The greedy loan shark burned him like a candle... When we say victim, we speak of total destruction. He lost everything. From a respectable householder he became a beggar. The only money he had was his ticket to return home. He opened his palm and showed me a few coins. Of medium height, once a successful businessman and a local factor in his area, he reached the lowest point of poverty and today asks for a day’s wage in order to live. He has no face to return to his place. He is ashamed. He feels that morally and socially he is a wreck. He speaks and his eyes fill with tears. His face was dark, his gaze a double-edged knife in the night. He seemed storm-tossed by anger, pain and despair. His mind had been wound up to explode at the moment of his testimony. And so it happened. The storm broke in the courtroom. It flashed and thundered. He was a real catapult. With his pain and misery he struck down the untamed beast that feeds only on starched, steaming banknotes. After each morsel it wipes its enormous mustache with the back of its hand, sighing with satisfaction. Then the fool falls into ecstasy. The defendant, seated in the dock, awkward and muttering, scratched with one hand the belly spread over the bench and with the other his head, trying to bring down lies. Signs that, despite the assurances of his wayward lawyers, he was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Then he began to puff up like a peacock and deflate like a balloon. As the witness pressed him from the flank, he stroked his mustache to draw strength. That movement foretold loss of control and anxiety. What a pity, kinsman, that the mustache ran out of battery! I was impressed by the witness’s presence and moral courage. It takes virtue and daring to confront a hard extortionist loan shark who rubs shoulders with enforcers and buys them tsipouro, while he has “eaten everything” from you. His contribution, without reward, to the conviction of this kind of criminal is unquestionably an invaluable offering to society as a whole. I pledged to help him. He unquestionably deserves it. The other side of organized crime sends proud greetings to the comrades, the “kardasia” of beautiful Thessaloniki. Filth and stench. The navel of the ring was the short, stout defendant. He ruled the lowlifes by handing out orders and professional smiles. A round face from which hung a large, thick, white mustache. A sign of dominance and manhood for its owner, in the package of overpriced, added-weight Cretan “bravery”. An empty gaze that, when against the light, took on the color of the 500-euro banknote. Cheap clothing in pale shades so as not to attract attention. A step sometimes steady, sometimes fluctuating, like the interest rate from 6-10% per month! Before the trial he had developed great mobility, which, to be discharged, required him urgently to dance the pentozali! Provocatively he approached the witnesses to intimidate them or bribe them with degrading sums, paying, let us say, 200 euros for the expenses of failing to appear as a witness! He looked at his victim with the haughty air of a gifted stallion who wanted to tell her “I took everything and left”! The impression he gave was that he was in no danger and that he would take one more stroll through the corridors and the courtroom. Blame his lawyers, who overpersuaded him that he would “clear it up”. The coarse parvenu, the chief loan shark, was surrounded by a swarm of rodents entirely of his own choosing. Like to like... The set included three males in appearance and one neighborhood girlfriend. Blonde, with tight jeans, heels and chewing gum, known to the world as an accountant! All gave the impression that they were accompanying the parish priest of their area to a scheduled blessing service. If they could, they would have carried liturgical banners too. Faces that seemed to have leapt out of Nikos Tsiforos’ book “The Children of the Streets”. A tall man in a black trench coat seemed to be the right-hand man. He was especially attentive and obedient to the boss and readily carried out his orders. I imagine him at night with a cigarette and the collar of his trench coat raised, next to the electricity pole, keeping watch for his friends the musclemen. The ones he had sent, after the leader’s ultimatum, to give physiotherapy to some victim who made the fatal mistake of not paying! The calling of the names began. The bench, as was proved, rose to the height of its mission and fulfilled its elementary duty. With its decision it sent a warm fighting message to Thessaloniki, which the Vardaris took and softly whistles to all the kardasia who are buried up to their ears in the rings. The complainant testified first. She spoke about her disastrous acquaintance with the conceited defendant. The first check she gave him in a flower shop was for 6,000,000 drachmas, and she received 5,000,000 in hand, with interest for three months at 6% per month. The 1,000,000 was the appetizer, or a bunch of gardenias. Then the appetite comes and the main course follows. She was not ready to answer all the questions. She had not prepared sufficiently, through her own responsibility. Nevertheless, the court formed full judicial conviction by combining her testimony with the documents and the statements of the other prosecution witnesses. Then followed the prosecution witnesses I mentioned above. As time passed, the defendant’s criminal activity was revealed and he himself was visibly irritated. The audience watched astonished. The climate of the days also helped, of course (Thessaloniki rings). Then came his own witnesses, who “knew nothing about the murder”. A good family man, a good person. They even made him fit to be a church warden. Such testimonies. The judges, however, knew they were lying. When the president also read the statements of the deceased witnesses, who had testified about enforcers, extortions and other similar matters, silence followed. The defense advanced the unshakable argument that “usury between in-laws is inconceivable”... In other words, the defense successfully tried to add sexual glints to the case! We were all left speechless by the inspiration. After half an hour the judges returned and announced their verdict: the prosecutor proposed eight years, the court reduced it to six years, a monetary penalty of 5,000 and three years’ deprivation of his civil rights. At least a beginning was made, and the haughty loan shark gathered his troop, “put his tail between his legs” and withdrew bent over and unrepentant... I have reasons to remember that day. It is a unique experience to watch judicial power, as Justice, operate and remove the malignant tumors from the bowels of a sick society...