They have paid at least €2 million for security drones, without investing in real security infrastructure
OSE prefers to give money to “unknowns” with photo assignments and competitions for the safety of the network and facilities, than to arrange for the installation of remote control and other safety systems, the absence of which was one of the main reasons for the train accident of Tempo. Another blatant case, similar to the scandals in the Hellenic Development Bank or ELTA, with a “party” of wasting taxpayers’ money by a public company.
A simple visit to Diaugia is enough for someone to see that the OSE spends thousands of euros per month to guard its premises with drones. The remarkable thing is that the companies to which he assigns the projects look like two drops of water. They even have a common email address.
These are two companies that appear to be taking the projects after an invitation from the OSE to provide guarding services for railway facilities and open lines using drones. The amounts amount to many thousands of euros per month, while the total amount that the companies have received from 2022 onwards amounts to at least 2 million euros.
“Twin” companies
Inter Star Security Ltd. and Starguard Ltd. are the ones invited by the OSE to submit a bid for the security services by flying means. According to the standard practice of the organization’s management, only companies receive the relevant invitation. However, there are cases where a call for interest was sent to a third company – possibly in the public eye, as they were not awarded the project. It is easy to conclude that the two “twin” companies are not the only ones engaged in this activity within the Greek and European territory.
The people behind the two companies are of great interest. Nikolaos Tsantsarakis appears as administrator of Inter Star, while Apostolos Trehandinis of Starguard. Apparently, the managers of the two companies are not connected, however with a second look it becomes clear that from the foundation of Starguard until 2016, its manager was N. Tsantsarakis. When he left the management of the company, he sold his shares, which were bought by the Cypriot company Ebelburg Holdings Limited, which is now a partner and member of Starguard.
From 2016 onwards, Rep. Trehandinis took over as administrator. In the following years, he himself buys company shares so that today he is one of the company’s main shareholders together with the Cypriot Ebelburg Holdings Limited.
However, we do not know who the partners of the said Cypriot company are as Cypriot law hides the partners well (a partner can hold the company shares as a trustee for another person). It is an institution of English law that is used by all the Irish funds that bought the “red” loans with the guarantee of the Greek government and nobody knows the real partners.
The second company, Inter Star, also has the same person as manager and partner, namely N. Tsantsarakis. However, in a document of Inter Star’s balance sheet for 2013, Ap. Trehandinis, who is an administrator and partner of Starguard, signs as financial director.
In addition, the two companies still share a lot in common, which converges to the fact that these are companies of common interest, or at least the same people behind them. Therefore, apart from the same persons who are in the management but also owning company shares, in official documents in Diaugia they appear with the same e-mail address and the same fax number, with telephone numbers that differ by only one digit, which are, however, registered in the same company but also in the same building complex, using an artificially different address. In fact, Inter Star appears in a document posted on Diaugia with an email address that contains the name “Trechantinis”.
Another interesting element in the case is that the common denominator of the two companies named Nikolaos Tsantsarakis appears in the great Pandora Papers scandal with companies in the British Virgin Islands. But the strange coincidences do not end here. The company Ironton Services Limited, which appears in the Pandora Papers and is linked to Tsantsarakis, has the same address (Agapinoros 5, Apollo Heights Aphrodite Hills, Flat/Office A11 Kouklia Paphos 8509 Cyprus) as the aforementioned Cypriot company Ebelburg Holdings Limited, the which acquired the corporate shares of Starguard from N. Tsantsarakis.
Photo contests
The criteria defined by each competition are always very specific, such as the existence of a mechanical technologist with ten years of experience in security services or the existence of three electronics technologists. These conditions create obstacles to the free competition under which securities companies operate. Even when an invitation is addressed to some other company besides the two mentioned above, the assignment is always given to one of the two. It is therefore questionable how only these two companies out of those active are able to undertake the guarding of the OSE facilities.
A repeated coincidence ceases to be a coincidence, especially when we are talking about photo contests in order to transfer money to certain companies. It is at least suspicious that an invitation is made to only two companies, which, as can be seen from the above, are managed by the same persons.
What is happening in OSE is rather clear. After all, it is not the first public company where services are provided to “unknowns”, which of course may hide non-transparent transactions and agreements.
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