Head of state company held for tax evasion

Financial police officers on Wednesday arrested the managing director of the Organization for the Horse Racing Organization of Greece (ODIE), one of several state companies slated for privatization, for allegedly owing 83 million euros in unpaid taxes.

Police have arrested dozens of suspected large-scale tax evaders in recent months but this is the first time that the head of a state-backed entity has been arrested for debts to the state.

Last month, in a name-and-shame campaign aimed at getting tax evaders to pay up, the government published a list of more than 4,000 people, including several household names, who owe a total of 15 billion euros to the state.