Greece yesterday appointed a former anti-terror prosecutor to spearhead its latest tax evasion crackdown in a bid to boost its depleted state coffers by a hoped €11.8 billion within two years. The naming of 55-year-old Ioannis Diotis as head of the Greek fraud squad came as government ministers unveiled a raft of measures to combat a shadow economy that costs the state up to €15 billion a year in lost revenue.

“There are studies by many organisations that give a shadow economy range from 25 to 35 per cent of GDP. Based on that and with simple calculations, one can assume that €10 to €15 billion are lost to tax evasion every year,” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told a news conference.

“Tax evasion constitutes a crime against the country,” the minister said, adding: “This is a battle for the country’s future.”

The ministries of finance, development, justice and police will work together to clamp down on tax evasion, undeclared property, smuggling, money laundering and illegal gambling and trade, in addition to hunting down uncollected fines that date back years, Mr Papaconstantinou said.

“In the past, the ratio of fines that were (successfully) collected was less than 10 per cent,” he said.

The police department’s cyber crime unit will have increased duties to assist the fraud squad headed by Mr Diotis, who made his name in the breakup of the November 17 far-left organisation nearly a decade ago.

One of the unit’s tasks will be to monitor online gambling, which generates an estimated €5 billion in revenue each year, said Citizen’s Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis.

Separate teams of inspectors will be formed to track down high-income suspects and monitor tax returns by the country’s top 1,137 companies.

There will also be tougher sentences and swifter court procedures for tax evasion and economic crime cases, and Greece will seek an agreement with Switzerland to levy tax on bank accounts held by Greeks there, the ministers said.