4.1.13
The investigation in the dealings of Kostas Vasilakos with EOT has revealed a past of shady deals with NGOs, the Church and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The 39-year-old is being accused of attempting to embezzle 147,000 euros from EOT, the national tourism organization.
Mr. Vasilakos was forced to resign from the Greek Orthodox Church’s “Apostoli” NGO in May 2012. Shortly after being hired at the end of 2011, Mr. Vasilakos was accused of setting up a “personal mechanism” in the NGO and acting like a “holy Golden Boy”. He was forced out of the NGO, following his dealings with the operation of the “Karellion Institution”, an Alzheimer’s disease medical unit.
In January 2002 Mr. Vasilakos was hired by the uniform supply office of the 2004 Olympic Games of Athens. A competition to produce the design of a French fashion designer was announced between. A departmental source recalls that Mr. Vasilakos “was informally in touch with the representatives of a well-known candidate company, whose owner was recently arrested over debts. Mr. Vasilakos assured that he could control the competition.”
Mr. Vasilakos attempted to change the competition rules so that 75% of the deciding factors were of a qualitative nature, in order to help certain people. This angered the office superiors who blocked the transaction. The source states that “the situation got out of hand and one of the superiors was so angered by his actions that he assaulted him in his office”. Mr. Vasilakos was also to be in charge of the rest of the Olympic costumes supply, but was promptly forced to quit.
