Greek police have reportedly arrested fugitive Artemis Sorras, leader of the ultra-nationalist cult movement ‘Convention of Greeks’ (Ellinon Elefsis).
An arrest warrant was issued in March 2017 on multiple accounts of fraud, money laundering and embezzlement and Sorras was convicted in absentia by Greece’s Supreme Court to eight years imprisonment on the embezzlement count. It hasn’t been confirmed yet if the arrest was on that order.
Police had been tipped off about Sorras’ whereabouts and he was under surveillance, Kathimerini reported, before they made the arrest in a house in Alimos, a suburb in South Athens.
The self-proclaimed billionaire had built a panic room in the house to avoid capture and had grown a beard to pose as a priest, according to the Athenian Press Agency. He is said to have only left his house in disguise every three days to buy food.
Sorras’ wife had also been declared a fugitive but there are no reports of her arrest.
In 2012, Artemis Sorras went public on national TV claiming to own shares of Greek Bank Anatolia from 1914. The estimated worth of the shares allegedly reached US$600 billion with which he offered to buy Greece’s debt from its EU lenders on the condition that he gained political power.
In the meantime, he launched his ultra-nationalist organisation which mainly targeting diaspora Greeks in the US, Canada and Australia. It required his followers to take an oath to the ancient Greek Gods and swear allegiance to him. He gained thousands of followers in Greece and overseas; some of his most fanatic supporters are located in Australia.
Membership came with a fee, which Sorras claimed he would deduct that from the taxes his members owed the Greek State. Some of Sorras’ followers reportedly told tax officials they thought he was to pay their debts.
In 2017, Sorras started calling himself himself “Saviour of Greece” but lost a large number of his following after a leading member of his organisation murdered a woman in Central Greece. Seven more of his close associates have been charged with felonies.
