The National Herald...jidakis, Marios Tokas, and Thanos Mikroutsikos, he was a virtuoso of Greek...
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The National Herald A WEEkLY GREEk-AMERiCAN PUBLiCATiON April 21-27, 2012 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 15, ISSUE 758 $1.50 c v Bringing the news to generations of Greek-Americans O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 NEWS TNH Staff ATHENS – The Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced today that it has acquired the Breal’s Silver Cup, the prize awarded to Greek champion Spyridon “Spyros” Louis, the man who won the first Marathon race in Modern Olympic history. In Greece and around the world Hellenes were thrilled to learn that the cup, which had remained in Louis’ family all these years, which was awarded at the inaugural Modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 – the only win for the home country – would remain in Greece. The humble champion who became a national hero was a Greek water-carrier. Born into a poor farmer's family in the town of Marousi, which is now a sub- urb North of Athens, his father sold mineral water in Athens which then lacked a central wa- ter supply. Louis helped his fa- ther by transporting the water. The Cup will now be shared with the people of Greece by be- ing permanently displayed for public view at the Stavros Niar- chos Foundation Cultural Center when it is completed in 2015. The Foundation will find a suit- able temporary location for it. It was a heated auction at Christie’s in London, where the 2012 Olympics will be held this summer, and the Cup was fi- nally sold for a record-breaking $860,000. The Greek Ministry of Cul- ture made no attempt to keep it in the country and said it could be sold because it wasn’t that valuable, and it looked as if the Cup, owned by Louis’ grandson, also named Spyros, would be gone before the Niarchos Foun- dation stepped up to save it at the auction at Christie’s. Louis’ grandson said he For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – Vassileios Giama- gas’ life took a detour Greek- Americans are familiar with only through novels, television, and the movies. Now at the tops of all the professions in the United States, few would imag- ine prison – 15 years in a high- security facility – as the desti- nation of a Greek in pursuit of the American dream. But a Greek never stops fighting for his rights and for a better future, and in America, everyone has a right to appeal their convictions. And to tell his or her side of the story. Although the Greek-born restaurateur who lived most of his life in Germany has only been here since 2006, the Greek-American community cannot be indifferent to his plight and to his pleas of being the victim of injustice. When his mother called TNH, imploring the newspaper to inform the community of her son’s tragedy in the hopes that he could be helped, we could not remain un- moved. The senior writer of the Eth- nikos Kirix, Demetrios Tsakas, its photo-reporter Kostas Bej, and I set out at sunrise on April 9 on a journey across a state none of us knew well beyond its nearby counties. We were not going to get “the whole truth” about a com- plex situation – that was clear from the start. Neither were we inclined to ignore the serious- ness of what the man was con- victed of – robbery and threats of violence, including torture – though it is puzzling how a man with apparently no prior record gets 15 years hard time for threats, not actions, in a busi- ness dispute. But we would bear witness to the state of a man in dire straits, which although few can imagine, anyone can one day suffer. As Scripture says, “time and chance happeneth to all.” Giamagas, who like hun- dreds of thousands of Greeks be- fore him came to this country in pursuit of the American dream that is advertised as re- quiring only guts, imagination, and hard work, did not follow them into the suburbs where most of them now live in nice neighborhoods surrounded by nice people – rather, he was transported far across the Em- pire State, and some of his new neighbors are killers. To visit Giamagas, we en- tered the name of a nearby vil- lage into our GPS. On February 5, 2010 Judge Carol Bergmann of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan compelled then- 38-year old Giamagas to live in a new home. It does not have an address, but it has a name, and an infamous one at that. It is inscribed not only in Ameri- can history books but the annals Giamagas Prepares for His Appeal; Confident that He Will Be Vindicated By Andy Dabilis TNH Staff Writer ATHENS – It was a sight Greeks weren’t used to: a high-ranking politician being arrested and jailed on charges of taking bribes and being involved in a money-laundering scheme to cover his tracks. Former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, a founding member of the PASOK Socialist party in 1974, was accused by prosecutors of using contract deals to enrich himself with as much as $10.45 million. He was taken into custody by police at a $1.8 million mansion on a pedestrian walkway known as “Billionaire’s Alley,” a home he is charged with owning but not declaring. He spent Easter weekend in a police holding cell before be- ing taken to the high-security Korydallos Prison and put into a cell reported to be the same one used to briefly incarcerate Ephraim, the former chief monk of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos who was impli- cated in a controversial land swap deal. Tsochatzopoulos tes- tified before a magistrate for eight hours and claimed to know nothing about any of the charges against him nor prop- erty deals and offshore firms traced to him. The newspaper Kathimerini reported that most of his answers to questions in court were “I don’t know,” and “It’s a coincidence.” He has also claimed the charges are a plot against him. He reportedly took his own sheets to a jail cell reserved for financial crime suspects and TV camera crews perched outside Former Greek Defense Minister Jailed for Bribes Vassileios Giamagas speaks with TNH reporters at Attica state prison. He arrived in the U.S. in 2006 with dreams of opening a restaurant. When a landlord-tenant dispute turned ugly, he had no friends or relatives to guide him through the intricacies of the American legal system. He is preparing his appeal, and could use some help from the community. Spyridon Louis’ cup will be shared with the people of Greece. It will be displayed for public view permanently at the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in 2015. TNH Staff ATHENS – Lovers of Greek mu- sic all over the world were sad- dened by the news that Greek singer Dimitris Mitropanos died on Tuesday at the age of 64. Af- ter suffering a heart attack on early Tuesday morning, Mitropanos was rushed to an Athens hospital, where he died of acute pulmonary edema. Mitropanos was born in Trikala in April 1948 and began his musical career in 1964. Working with some of Greece's most renowned composers, in- cluding Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos, Manos Had- jidakis, Marios Tokas, and Thanos Mikroutsikos, he was a virtuoso of Greek laika popular music for over four decades. “’Dimitris Mitropanos was an endearing and honest man,” ac- cording to local music legend Giorgos Zampetas. Known as Mitsos to his family and friends, Greek Music Loses a Legend: Mitropanos By George Psyllides CyprusMail NICOSIA – Cyprus and Israel are close to a gas-sharing agree- ment to exploit reserves that fall on the maritime boundary be- tween the two countries. For- eign Minister Erato Kozakou- Marcoullis said yesterday. Speaking after talks with her Cyprus and Israel Close to Gas Deal By Theodore Kalmoukos NEW YORK – Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, former presiding priest of the Holy Trinity Arch- diocesan Cathedral of New York, has joined the O’Meara Ferguson Whelan & Conway Company in the fundraising wing, according to the company’s website. Marangos appears without the cleric’s regalia but instead with suit and tie. No mention is made that he is or he has been a Greek Orthodox priest, but he is simply identified as “Dr. Frank Marangos.” Marangos did not respond to TNH’s request for comment. Also, Cathedral Parish Council President Stefanos Tserpelis did not respond. TNH asked Archbishop Demetrios via written request for comment if he had given Marangos permission and con- sent to join the O’Meara Com- pany, if Marangos continues to be a priest of the Archdiocese and the Cathedral, and if the Archdiocese paid his salary and the benefits during the time he was not performing his priestly duties at the Cathedral, but the archbishop has not responded, either. O’Meara has posted the fol- lowing about Marangos on its website: “Throughout his 34 years of experience, Dr. Frank Marangos has had extensive ex- perience with religious, educa- tional, business, and non-profit entities providing organizational consulting, assessment, leader- ship development, instructional training, strategic fundraising, communication, and personal- ized coaching. His has doctoral degrees in Adult Education (EdD) and in Ministry and Childhood Education (DMin). He is also a Certified Practitioner and Interpreter of Myers-Briggs Type Instruments (MBTI), pro- viding vital psychometric infor- Former Cathedral Priest Joined O’Meara Co. Greek Restaurateur Serving in Attica Prison Claims He is Innocent Continued on page 6 TNH/COSTAS BEJ Niarchos Foundation Saves First Marathon Winner’s Cup for Greece Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 9
Transcript of The National Herald...jidakis, Marios Tokas, and Thanos Mikroutsikos, he was a virtuoso of Greek...
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The National HeraldA wEEkly GrEEk-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON
April 21-27, 2012
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 15, ISSUE 758 $1.50
c v
Bringing the newsto generations ofGreek-Americans
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915NEW
S
TNH Staff
ATHENS – The Stavros NiarchosFoundation announced todaythat it has acquired the Breal’sSilver Cup, the prize awardedto Greek champion Spyridon“Spyros” Louis, the man whowon the first Marathon race inModern Olympic history.
In Greece and around theworld Hellenes were thrilled tolearn that the cup, which hadremained in Louis’ family allthese years, which was awardedat the inaugural ModernOlympic Games in Athens in1896 – the only win for thehome country – would remainin Greece.
The humble champion whobecame a national hero was aGreek water-carrier. Born into apoor farmer's family in the townof Marousi, which is now a sub-urb North of Athens, his fathersold mineral water in Athenswhich then lacked a central wa-ter supply. Louis helped his fa-ther by transporting the water.
The Cup will now be sharedwith the people of Greece by be-ing permanently displayed forpublic view at the Stavros Niar-chos Foundation Cultural Centerwhen it is completed in 2015.The Foundation will find a suit-able temporary location for it.
It was a heated auction atChristie’s in London, where the2012 Olympics will be held thissummer, and the Cup was fi-nally sold for a record-breaking$860,000.
The Greek Ministry of Cul-ture made no attempt to keep itin the country and said it couldbe sold because it wasn’t thatvaluable, and it looked as if theCup, owned by Louis’ grandson,also named Spyros, would begone before the Niarchos Foun-dation stepped up to save it atthe auction at Christie’s.
Louis’ grandson said he
For subscription:
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Vassileios Giama-gas’ life took a detour Greek-Americans are familiar withonly through novels, television,and the movies. Now at the topsof all the professions in theUnited States, few would imag-ine prison – 15 years in a high-security facility – as the desti-nation of a Greek in pursuit ofthe American dream. But aGreek never stops fighting forhis rights and for a better future,and in America, everyone has aright to appeal their convictions.And to tell his or her side of thestory.
Although the Greek-bornrestaurateur who lived most ofhis life in Germany has onlybeen here since 2006, theGreek-American communitycannot be indifferent to hisplight and to his pleas of beingthe victim of injustice. When hismother called TNH, imploringthe newspaper to inform thecommunity of her son’s tragedyin the hopes that he could behelped, we could not remain un-moved.
The senior writer of the Eth-nikos Kirix, Demetrios Tsakas,its photo-reporter Kostas Bej,and I set out at sunrise on April9 on a journey across a statenone of us knew well beyond itsnearby counties.
We were not going to get“the whole truth” about a com-plex situation – that was clearfrom the start. Neither were weinclined to ignore the serious-ness of what the man was con-victed of – robbery and threatsof violence, including torture –though it is puzzling how a manwith apparently no prior recordgets 15 years hard time forthreats, not actions, in a busi-ness dispute.
But we would bear witnessto the state of a man in direstraits, which although few canimagine, anyone can one daysuffer. As Scripture says, “timeand chance happeneth to all.”
Giamagas, who like hun-dreds of thousands of Greeks be-fore him came to this countryin pursuit of the Americandream that is advertised as re-quiring only guts, imagination,and hard work, did not followthem into the suburbs wheremost of them now live in niceneighborhoods surrounded bynice people – rather, he wastransported far across the Em-pire State, and some of his newneighbors are killers.
To visit Giamagas, we en-tered the name of a nearby vil-lage into our GPS. On February5, 2010 Judge Carol Bergmannof the New York Supreme Courtin Manhattan compelled then-38-year old Giamagas to live ina new home. It does not havean address, but it has a name,and an infamous one at that. Itis inscribed not only in Ameri-can history books but the annals
Giamagas Prepares for His Appeal; Confident that He Will Be Vindicated
By Andy DabilisTNH Staff Writer
ATHENS – It was a sight Greeksweren’t used to: a high-rankingpolitician being arrested andjailed on charges of takingbribes and being involved in amoney-laundering scheme tocover his tracks.
Former Defense Minister AkisTsochatzopoulos, a foundingmember of the PASOK Socialist
party in 1974, was accused byprosecutors of using contractdeals to enrich himself with asmuch as $10.45 million. He wastaken into custody by police ata $1.8 million mansion on apedestrian walkway known as“Billionaire’s Alley,” a home heis charged with owning but notdeclaring.
He spent Easter weekend ina police holding cell before be-ing taken to the high-security
Korydallos Prison and put intoa cell reported to be the sameone used to briefly incarcerateEphraim, the former chief monkof the Vatopedi Monastery onMount Athos who was impli-cated in a controversial landswap deal. Tsochatzopoulos tes-tified before a magistrate foreight hours and claimed toknow nothing about any of thecharges against him nor prop-erty deals and offshore firms
traced to him. The newspaperKathimerini reported that mostof his answers to questions incourt were “I don’t know,” and“It’s a coincidence.”
He has also claimed thecharges are a plot against him.He reportedly took his ownsheets to a jail cell reserved forfinancial crime suspects and TVcamera crews perched outside
Former Greek Defense Minister Jailed for Bribes
Vassileios Giamagas speaks with TNH reporters at Attica stateprison. He arrived in the U.S. in 2006 with dreams of openinga restaurant. When a landlord-tenant dispute turned ugly, he
had no friends or relatives to guide him through the intricaciesof the American legal system. He is preparing his appeal, andcould use some help from the community.
Spyridon Louis’ cup will be shared with the people of Greece. It will be displayed for publicview permanently at the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in 2015.
TNH Staff
ATHENS – Lovers of Greek mu-sic all over the world were sad-dened by the news that Greeksinger Dimitris Mitropanos diedon Tuesday at the age of 64. Af-ter suffering a heart attack onearly Tuesday morning,Mitropanos was rushed to an
Athens hospital, where he diedof acute pulmonary edema.
Mitropanos was born inTrikala in April 1948 and beganhis musical career in 1964.Working with some of Greece'smost renowned composers, in-cluding Mikis Theodorakis,Stavros Xarhakos, Manos Had-jidakis, Marios Tokas, and
Thanos Mikroutsikos, he was avirtuoso of Greek laika popularmusic for over four decades.
“’Dimitris Mitropanos was anendearing and honest man,” ac-cording to local music legendGiorgos Zampetas. Known asMitsos to his family and friends,
Greek Music Loses a Legend: Mitropanos
By George PsyllidesCyprusMail
NICOSIA – Cyprus and Israelare close to a gas-sharing agree-ment to exploit reserves that fallon the maritime boundary be-tween the two countries. For-eign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said yesterday.
Speaking after talks with her
Cyprus andIsrael Closeto Gas Deal
By Theodore Kalmoukos
NEW YORK – Rev. Dr. FrankMarangos, former presidingpriest of the Holy Trinity Arch-diocesan Cathedral of New York,has joined the O’Meara FergusonWhelan & Conway Company inthe fundraising wing, accordingto the company’s website.
Marangos appears withoutthe cleric’s regalia but insteadwith suit and tie. No mention ismade that he is or he has been aGreek Orthodox priest, but he issimply identified as “Dr. FrankMarangos.”
Marangos did not respond toTNH’s request for comment.Also, Cathedral Parish CouncilPresident Stefanos Tserpelis didnot respond.
TNH asked ArchbishopDemetrios via written requestfor comment if he had givenMarangos permission and con-sent to join the O’Meara Com-pany, if Marangos continues tobe a priest of the Archdioceseand the Cathedral, and if theArchdiocese paid his salary andthe benefits during the time hewas not performing his priestlyduties at the Cathedral, but thearchbishop has not responded,either.
O’Meara has posted the fol-lowing about Marangos on itswebsite: “Throughout his 34years of experience, Dr. FrankMarangos has had extensive ex-perience with religious, educa-tional, business, and non-profitentities providing organizationalconsulting, assessment, leader-ship development, instructionaltraining, strategic fundraising,communication, and personal-ized coaching. His has doctoraldegrees in Adult Education(EdD) and in Ministry andChildhood Education (DMin).He is also a Certified Practitionerand Interpreter of Myers-BriggsType Instruments (MBTI), pro-viding vital psychometric infor-
FormerCathedralPriest JoinedO’Meara Co.
Greek Restaurateur Serving in Attica Prison Claims He is Innocent
Continued on page 6
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
Niarchos Foundation Saves First Marathon Winner’s Cup for Greece
Continued on page 2Continued on page 2
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Continued on page 8
Continued on page 9
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COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, APRIL 21-27, 2012
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Vote on our website!You have the chance to express your opinion on our website
on an important question in the news. The results will be pub-lished in our printed edition next week along with the questionfor that week.
The question this week is: Have any Greek-American orga-nizations to which you belong taken any action regarding theGreek crisis?o Yeso Noo Maybe
The results for last week’s question: Do you think it is im-portant for all Christians to celebrate Easter on the same day? 47% voted "Yes"44% voted "No"9% voted "Maybe"
Please vote at: www.thenationalherald.com
n FEBRUARY 17-MAY 20 TARPON SPRINGS, FL – The Cityof Tarpon Springs has an-nounced the installation of theirexhibition “The Greek Commu-nities of the Bahamas and Tar-pon Springs: An Intertwined His-tory” in the second floor galleryof the Center for Gulf Coast Folk-life. Greek sponge fisherman andmerchants began arriving in bothNassau and Tarpon Springs bythe mid-1880s, and strong familyand business ties remain to thisday. The exhibition will be at theCenter for Gulf Coast Wildlife at101 S. Pinellas Avenue, TarponSprings, FL until May 20 Mon-day-Friday from 10AM to 4PM.Admission is free.
n ApRil 20-22ASTORIA – The Hellenic CulturalCenter in cooperation with TheMikrokosmos Ensemble presentA Revival of the Athenian andNew York Boite Era -The GoldenPeriod of Greek Music and Songwith Grigoris Maninakis, theMikrokosmos Ensemble, and theparticipation of Greek-Americanyouth and guest artists fromGreece and New York. The showbegins at 7:30PM on Friday April20th and Saturday April 21st, aswell as at 5PM on Sunday April2nd at The Hellenic CulturalCenter at 27-09 Crescent Streetin Astoria. For more informationcall 718-626-5111 weekdaysfrom 10AM to 4PM.
n ApRil 21BOSTON, MA — The Federationof Hellenic-American Societies ofNew England is hosting their An-nual Greek Independence DayParade dinner gala. There willbe music by George Kaminarisand His Orchestra. Cocktails willbe served at 6:30PM and dinnerat 7:30PM. The recommendeddonation is $80, for reservationscall 781-861-0918 or 617-283-6279.
ASTORIA – The Athenians’ Soci-ety of New York presents: “TheFirst Exposition of Hellenic Writ-ers of the Diaspora.” These giftedindividuals will come togetherand present their publishedworks to the general public in an8-hour event. They will not onlypresent their works but will besigning them as well. John Cat-simatidis will be a special guest.Performances by the Archdioce-san Children’s Greek Chorus un-der the direction of Maria Kolevaand by composer and pianistAthena Adamopoulos will con-clude the day’s presentations.Theevent will take place Saturday,Apr. 21 from 12PM to 8PM atThe Petros G. Petrides CulturalCenter at The Saint DemetriosCathedral in Astoria. For moreinformation call Katerina Andri-oti-Baitinger at 718-600-5888 ore-mail at [email protected].
n ApRil 24MANHATTAN - Alkinoos Ioanni-dis, one of the most well-lovedGreek songwriters and perform-ers, will appear at Merkin Con-cert Hall at 129 W. 67th Streetin Manhattan at 8PM on Tues-day, Apr. 24. His amalgamationof Cypriot and Greek influencesalong with byzantine, classical,and rock music elements, is pre-sented with a unique vocal de-livery. For ticket information call212-501-3330 or visit [email protected]
n ApRil 27STAMFORD, CT – On Friday,Apr. 27, 2012, the StamfordAHEPA will hold its annualfundraiser, a dinner dance at theNorwalk Inn and ConferenceCenter. With the humanitariancrisis in Greece reaching direproportions, a portion of the pro-ceeds will support the NationalAHEPA relief effort for the peopleof Greece. Proceeds will alsobenefit the Stamford AHEPAScholarship Fund. The NorwalkInn is at 99 East Ave, in NorwalkCT. Cocktails from 6 to 7PM.Prime rib dinner. Greek dancingafter dinner to live music by Gre-cian Nights. $50 per person. Allare welcome. For reservations,please contact Nicholas Nikas,203-554-5570 or [email protected] by Sunday, April 22, atthe latest.
n ApRil 28MANHATTAN – “Movie Night atthe Annunciation” presents theromantic comedy “OPA!” starring
Matthew Modine, Richard Grif-fiths & Agni Scott (in English &Greek). The suggested donationof $15 supports the philan-thropic work of the PhiloptochosSociety which sponsors “MovieNight.” Refreshments will beserved. Film starts at 7PM DemasHall, Annunciation Greek Ortho-dox Church, 302 West 91stStreet, (at West End Ave.) inManhattan. 212-724-2070.
MANHATTAN — The HellenicProfessional Women Inc., arehosting their annual career fo-rum at the Cornell Club on Sat-urday, Apr. 28. The event titledCareers in Challenging Times,will be moderated by NicolePetallides, a Fox Business Newsanchor. The Cornell Club is lo-cated at 6 East 44th Street, 4thfl, in Manhattan. Admission willrange from $35 for members to$45 for members, with studentspaying only $25. For more infor-mation go to HellenicProfession-alWomen.org.
n ApRil 29ST. LOUIS, MO — The HellenicSpirit Foundation will be present-ing Nicholas Karakas with its Life-time Achievement Award duringa testimonial dinner. The dinnerwill be taking place at the Mis-souri Athletic Club at 405 Wash-ington Ave., in St. Louis on Sun-day, Apr. 29 at 5:30PM.Attendees are asked to make acharitable donation in an amountranging from $175 to $3,000 tothe Byzantine chair at the Uni-versity of Missouri at St. Louis.Checks should be made payableto: Hellenic Spirit Foundation,and donations should note thedate of April 29 in the memo slotof the check. Contact ChrysoulaTomaras at 314-447-0290.
n MAY 4MANHATTAN — THE Cyprus-USChamber of Commerce Inc. isholding their ninth annualawards dinner at which they willhonor Noble Energy and theirChairman and CEO Charles D.Davidson. The dinner will takeplace at the Hilton New York onFriday, May 4 at 6:30 PM. Formore information call 201-444-5609.
n MAY 12MANHATTAN — The HellenicTimes Scholarship Fund presentsits 21st Anniversary Gala at theNew York Marriott Marquis Ho-tel on Saturday, May 12. A su-perstar concert will also be head-lined by Greek singing sensationGiannis Ploutarxos. HTSF willhonor Businessman and Philan-thropist Dennis Mehiel, Chair-man and CEO of U.S. Corru-gated, Inc., and FOX NewsChannel’s Chief CongressionalCorrespondent Mike Emanuel.Past honorees will be back to pre-sent workshops to inspire stu-dents earlier in the day from9AM at the NY Marriott Marquis.Topics will include how to suc-ceed in Business, Law, Real Es-tate, Media/Journalism and theArts. Admission to the workshopis free with the purchase of aGala ticket. For further informa-tion, to receive an invitation orto purchase tickets, visit our web-site at www.HTSF.org or call212-986-6881. Also Visit theHTSF on Facebook.
n MAY 18MANHATTAN — AKTINA Pro-ductions invites all to join at theirannual benefit concert from theseries GREEK MUSIC JOURNEYat the Kaye Playhouse at HunterCollege in Manhattan on Friday,May 18th at 8:30PM. The con-cert will celebrate a wide varietyof traditional songs from aroundthe Mediterranean as well as thepopular Greek blues (Rem-betika). The concert will takeplace at the Kaye Playhouse atE. 68th Street, between Park andLexington Avenues. To purchasetickets call AKTINA at 718-545-1151, the prices range from $25to $75, with a $5 surcharge.
n NOTE TO OUR READERSThis calendar of events sectionis a complimentary service to theGreek American community. Allparishes, organizations and in-stitutions are encouraged to e-mail their information regardingthe event 3-4 weeks ahead oftime, and no later than Mondayof the week before the event, [email protected]
GOINGS ON...
wanted the money for his chil-dren and was selling it reluc-tantly. He said he was stunnedby how much the engraved six-inch cup brought.
“Deep down I hope that thecup remains in Greece, but nomatter where it ends up, it willforever represent the glory ofmy country, and I have no doubtthat the new owner will treasureit as we have done,” he said af-ter the sale.
He got his wish following theauction that involved six bid-ders. The auctioneer confirmedthe buyer as the Stavros Niar-chos Foundation, a grantmakingorganization set up in 1996 thatplans to build a major culturalcenter in Athens, where theOlympic cup will go on displayfrom 2015. In the interim, atemporary home will be sought.
“Breal’s Silver Cup will beshared with the public and serveas a reminder of our history, her-itage and resilient spirit,” saidAndreas C. Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Foundation,which has its headquarters inNew York and offices in Athensand Monte Carlo. “Our hope isthat the cup inspires and rekin-dles Greek pride, just as Louis’victory did on the last day ofwhat would become the ModernOlympic Games,” he said. TheCup, which Olympic historianAlexander Kitroeff described asone of the most importantpieces of memorabilia associ-ated with the games, smashedthe previous auction record foran Olympic piece set in April2011, when an Olympic torchfrom the 1952 games held inHelsinki was sold at auction inParis for the equivalent of$400,000.
“The fact that the familymanaged to preserve the cupthrough more than a century oftumultuous events includingseveral wars and foreign occu-pation of Greece symbolizes theimportance that Greeks attach
to their ancient heritage and theOlympic Games,” Kitroeff saidin a statement, news agencyReuters reported. He added,“The significance and value ofthe silver cup won by the Greekrunner Spyros Louis and kept inhis family’s possession sincethen is far greater than almostany other Olympic memorabiliadating from those first modernOlympics held in Athens.”
"It is hard to believe that such
a small trophy represents somuch in sporting and Olympichistory," Christie's said after thesale was announced accordingto the Associated Press.
The cup was named afterMichel Breal, the French philol-ogist who invented the men’smarathon race as part of the1896 games. Inspired by the leg-end of the messenger Pheidip-pides, he had the idea to stagea race from the city of Marathon
to Athens – a distance of 25miles, and promised a silver cupto the winner.
Of the 17 athletes who beganthe race, only 10 finished, oneof whom was later disqualifiedfor traveling by carriage for partof the race. Louis, a previously-unknown water carrier who al-legedly sipped cognac on hisway around the track and be-came a national hero for his vic-tory, finished in just under threehours, eight minutes ahead ofthe second place winner andcame into the venerable Pana-thenaic Stadium to the roars ofGreeks and the country’s king.
The people of Greece werevery excited about the newly-invented event hoped a Greekwould be the first to win it.Qualifying races were organisedby an army colonel named Pa-padiamantopoulos. He knewLouis because he was his com-manding officer during his mil-itary service. The first qualifyingrace was actually the firstmarathon race ever held. Khar-ilaos Vasilakos won it with atime of 3 hours, 18 minutes.Two weeks later Louis partici-pated in the second qualifyingrace after Papadiamantopoulosconvinced him to try out. Louiscame in fifth place.
The actual Olympicmarathon was run on April 10.Greeks were hungry for a vic-tory at the games but were dis-appointed thus far. Losing thediscus throw, a classical Greekevent which was won by theAmerican Robert Garrett, wasespecially galling.
When word arrived thatLouis had taken the lead, thecrowd began to shout “Ellinas,Ellinas.” When Louis finally ar-rived at Panathenaic Stadium,also known as the Kallimar-maro, the spectators went wildand two Greek princes, CrownPrince Constantine and PrinceGeorge, ran out to meet himand accompanied him on his fi-nal lap. Louis’ time was 2:58:50hours.
Niarchos Foundation Saves First Olympic Cup
mation for leadership, teambuild-ing, professional learning com-munities, and organizational de-velopment. Further, he brings amulti-faceted set of experienceswith regard to organizationalplanning, development, andtraining. Dr. Marangos has trav-eled throughout the United Statesconducting education seminars,leadership development pro-grams, parish strategic planningand stewardship programs, re-treats, and teacher training work-shops. He has taught at severaltheological schools and Christianuniversities, and a nationally Cer-tified Distance Learning Leaderwith expertise in developing in-teractive CD-ROMs, and conduct-ing on-line learning courses.
“As founder and CEO ofOINOS Educational ConsultingCompany and a Senior BusinessCoach and Consultant for AWAKEConsulting Group, Dr. Marangoshas provided training and supportto entrepreneurial leaders on avariety of business and marketingstrategies. He has been invited toparticipate in national and inter-national think tanks focusing onsocietal/religious issues hosted bythe United States Government(SAG) and Oxford University.
“Dr. Marangos has a plethoraof experience in the areas offundraising and strategic plan-ning, as well as financial over-sight. He was responsible for thedevelopment/implementation ofa $5 million capital campaign thatled to the design and constructionof a national architecturallyaward-winning church sanctuary.He has developed thematic,multi-year stewardship cam-paigns that have enlarged parishmemberships and increased op-erational revenues by 300%. Dr.Marangos’ leadership experiencealso includes the development ofa five-year educational strategicplan. He has successfully au-thored numerous faculty grantsand conducted various compre-hensive analyses, including a na-tional SWOT effort that involvedthe development and validationof an organizational climate in-strument. He has designed andfacilitated environmental scans,interpreted data, and generatedorganizational focus goals to meetparish needs.
“A highlight of Dr. Marangos’career was his distinct privilegeof assisting and synchronizing thelogistical communication needsof the historic Papal Visit of theHoly Father, Pope Benedict XVI,with His All Holiness PatriarchBartholomew I, the EcumenicalPatriarch of the Greek OrthodoxChurch, in Istanbul, Turkey. Hewas also personally awarded aProclamation by the City Councilof New York City for establishingand conducting a noteworthyChristian educational program foryoung professionals working inManhattan.
Dr. Marangos is currently an
adjunct assistant professor atSaint John’s University (Queens,NY) where he teaches variouscourses in Catholic Theology andhas distinctive experience as anauthor, publishing numerous ar-ticles in theological publications.He is a regular contributor to sev-eral on-line Christian radio pro-grams, and continues to write fea-ture articles for Praxis Magazine,a national periodical for religiouseducators, that he founded andmanaged as executive editor fornearly a decade.
“Our mission is to provideCatholic organizations with ad-vice and counsel on the best pos-sible use of their temporal re-sources as they work to furthertheir missions.
“O’Meara, Ferguson, Whelan,and Conway (O’Meara Ferguson)integrates specifically crafted fi-nancial strategies, unmatched ac-cess to capital financing alterna-tives, investment managementadvice, and stewardship-basedfundraising counsel to manageand leverage financial assets tobuild our clients’ fiscal strengthand independence.
“Since its inception in 2000,O’Meara Ferguson has establisheditself as both an innovator and anauthority in Church-related pro-ject financing and financial mat-ters.
“We have arranged project fi-nancing that has enabled over $1billion of construction for 100separate facilities including cathe-drals, convents, monasteries,parishes, high schools, and
Catholic Charities facilities. Addi-tionally, O’Meara Ferguson hasprovided counsel on some of themost successful diocesanfundraising campaigns, raisingnearly $1 billion in gifts and man-aging the efforts of tens of thou-sands of campaign volunteers.
O’Meara Ferguson is recog-nized by major money centerbanks, international investmentbanking firms, bond rating agen-cies, and insurance companies asthe knowledge leader regardingChurch finances. We are viewedas a trusted advisor to Catholicdioceses, religious institutes, highschools and universities regardingstrategic planning, finance, capi-tal project financing, develop-ment counsel, and stewardshipeducation.”
Among the Company’s manyclients are the Archdiocese ofChicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, In-dianapolis, Los Angeles,Louisville, Milwaukee, New Or-leans, Omaha, the United StatesConference of Catholic Bishops,and also various Monastic Orders.
TNH wrote extensively onMarch 10, 2011 about the Cathe-dral’s problems and the disputesbetween Marangos and membersof the parish council. Demetrioseffectively removed NicholasKoutsomitis from the presidencyby not renewing his tenure. Healso removed many other mem-bers of the parish council who re-portedly disagreed with Maran-gos and appointed Cherpelis tobe president of the Council.
The Cathedral is the onlyparish of the Archdiocese whosecouncil is not elected by the mem-bers of the parish; its membersare appointed by the Archbishop.That policy began with the lateArchbishop Iakovos and it con-tinues under Demetrios.
Marangos had been absentfrom his position since July 1. Hedid not participate in June’sparish council meetings, and didnot liturgize during the months
of July and August. He had re-quested from the Archdiocese andwas granted medical leave withpay through August 14 due tosome health concerns.
After that, he departed for athree-week vacation and was sup-posed to return to his priestly du-ties on September 4, but he didnot. He was also not present onSeptember 11 when Demetrioscelebrated the Divine Liturgy andpresided over the memorial ser-vice for the repose of the souls ofthe victims of the September 11,2001 terrorist attack.
Marangos presented theCathedral with an ultimatumwith three conditions for the re-turn to his duties: “Certain mem-bers of the parish council mustbe dismissed. The parish councilmust immediately stop the finan-cial audit it has launched whichgoes back six years and includesmatters pertaining to priests’ ex-penses and compensation and theArchbishop to publicly declarethat he is the Dean of Holy TrinityCathedral.”
The Archdiocese refused tosatisfy his ultimatum and as a re-sult he did not return to hispriestly position.
Marangos was appointedDean of the Cathedral in 2007,succeeding the long-serving Rev.Dr. Robert Stephanopoulos.Marangos had served as the Di-rector of the Religious EducationDepartment of the Archdiocese.In 2006, he was appointed Direc-tor of Communications at theArchdiocese on the recommenda-tion of Vice-Chairman of theArchdiocesan Council Michael Ja-haris. Marangos’ tenure lasted forjust a short period of time due toconflicts with other officials in thisDepartment who he said wouldnot let him perform his job.
Demetrios removed him fromthe Communications Departmentand appointed him Dean of hisCathedral, again on Jaharis’ rec-ommendation.
Former NY Cathedral Priest Has Joined O'Meara
Above: Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos with Archbishop Demetriosat the swearing in of the Board of Trustees of the Cathedral in2011. Stefanos Cherpelis, President of the Board, stands to thearchbishop’s right. Left: Marangos’ photo on the O’Meara Fer-guson Whelan & Conway website.
Continued from page 1
An employee at the renowned Christie’s auction house rever-ently holds the Breal’s Silver Cup that was awarded to SpyridonLouis for winning the first Olympic Marathon race.
Continued from page 1
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TNH Staff
NEW YORK – The HuffingtonPost was one of the winnerswhen the Pulitzer Prizes forjournalism were awarded onApril 16 in New York. In a cere-mony that the Los AngelesTimes wrote “demonstrated theresilience of old media and theascendance of the new…the 7-year-old Huffington Post tookthe national reporting prize forits exploration of the challengesthat confront wounded U.S. ser-vice members.”
ProPublica was the first digi-tal-focused outlet to win aPulitzer when it won the na-tional reporting prize last yearand new media’s march forwardcontinued with the websitefounded by Arianna Huffingtonwhich began as a site for newsaggregation, and by Politico inWashington, which won forMatt Wuerker's editorial car-toons.
Some things remained thesame, however, as the New YorkTimes was the year’s only mul-tiple winner. Its all-time total isnow 108.
The event, which was heldat Columbia University, was the96th annual ceremony, and for
the first time in 35 years, thePulitzer board did not choose afiction prize.
They also did not award onefor editorial writing.
The Washington Post, in
rather unflattering words, wrotethat “Arianna Huffington’s self-declared “Internet newspaper”
has badly desired journalisticcredibility to match its robusttraffic, and nothing lends morerespect in media than aPulitzer.”
The Washington Post quotedHuffington that, “It’s the culmi-nation of what we started tobuild almost seven years ago…It’s a great affirmation that greatjournalism can thrive on theWeb.”
The Washington Post wrotethat she “believes the awardchanges the perception of theHuffington Post as an aggrega-tor that draws eyeballs by recy-cling the journalism of otheroutlets.”
“It definitely does,” Huffing-ton said. “Always in life, the nar-rative lags behind the reality.”
Huffington appeared onTuesday's Morning Joe to com-ment on the award for the 10-part series on wounded veter-ans.
She praised the author of theseries, David Wood, the Huffin-gton Post’s senior military cor-respondent.
“When he writes about theseissues, he doesn't pretend to beat arm's length," she said. "Heallows himself to empathize, tobe there, to be in those homes
after the vets return…So manyof our returning vets are so se-verely wounded, so many ofthem are taking their ownlives…What is tragic is the factthat all this is happening in anunnecessary war, without aclear mission, without knowingwhat good we are doing there.We are only there because thereis no political will to leave," shesaid.
Huffington said she wantedthe war to be brought into theheart of the presidential cam-paign.
The award was a triumph forboth the Huffington Post and itsfounder. Her father would havebeen proud, too. In an interviewwith the Financial Times Huff-ington once related that her“journalist father was punishedwith incarceration in a concen-tration camp for running a re-sistance paper during the Sec-ond World War.”
She moved to the UnitedStates in 1980 and in 1984 shewas introduced to oilmanMichael Huffington. Marriagebrought two daughters intotheir lives but the couple di-vorced in 1997, around the timeof her sharp political shift to theleft.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Building the NewGreece will require hard work,along with imagination and cre-ativity. Artists don’t have a mo-nopoly on that, but thinkingoutside the box comes more eas-ily to them. On April 14, the fa-mous Kouros Art Gallery onManhattan’s Upper East Sidehosted a reading and discussionof Greek poetry from Ancient toModern times, one of two cul-tural events accompanying aspecial art exhibit whose saleswill benefit the Fulbright Foun-dation Greece Scholarship Pro-gram.
The Exhibit, which was con-ceived by the gallery’s owners,Angelos and Charlotte Camillos,will run through April 28 and isbeing held under the auspicesof the Consulate General ofGreece in New York in collabo-ration with the Program in Hel-lenic Studies at Columbia Uni-versity and Fairfield University.
On April 17 Prof. KatherineSchwab of Fairfield Universitypresented the second offering,a lecture on “The Caryatid Hair-styling Project,” based on herstudy of the famous Acropolissculptures.
The reading was titled “TheGreek Poets: Homer to the Pre-sent” and drew from the con-tents of the book of the same ti-tle published by W.W. Norton &Company. It was organized byKaren Van Dyck with EdmundKeeley, Rachel Hadas, and PeterConstantine, each of whom co-edited the book.
Charlotte Camillos welcomedthe guests and explained thatThe Other Greece focuses on“positive and significant Greekcultural contributions featuringartists of Hellenic descent aswell as artists from other coun-tries in their expressions of sol-idarity with their colleagues inGreece.” The reading beganwith introductions by Camillosof the participants.
Karen Van Dyck has directedthe Program in Hellenic Studiesat Columbia since 1988. Shewrites and teaches on ModernGreek literature and culture,gender, diaspora, and transla-tion. Among the pieces she readwas a beautiful passage aboutthe birth of Aretousa from the
Cretan epic Erotokritos.She thanked the Camilloses
and noted it was not easy to se-lect the poems. She called Kee-ley a tough task master, and theguests loved the selections.
Keeley was unable to attenddue to family responsibilities. Heretired in 1994 from a long teach-ing career at Princeton Universityand served twice as president ofthe Modern Greek Studies Asso-ciation. His fiction and non-fic-tion are often set in Greece.
Rachel Hadas is the authorof numerous books of poetry, es-says, and translations, includingthe work of Cavafy and Seferis.
Peter Constantine is a literarytranslator and editor. Hecoedited A Century of Greek Po-etry: 1900-2000 along with Kee-ley, Van Dyck and Peter Bien.The Greek guests, who spentHoly Week listening to gloriesof Byzantine religious poetry,were informed by Constantinethat the Byzantine section of thebook originally was supposed tobe only 45 pages. He recalledonce being told by an Athenianbookseller, “there is no Byzan-tine poetry, just some hymns.”The poetry turned out to bemuch more interesting than ex-pected, some of it bawdy as wellas critical, and the section wasexpanded to more than 80
pages.Van Dyck told TNH, “all of
us found that having a poetryreading at this moment whenGreece is having a sense of‘what next, what do we do’” wasinspiring. “All the poems we se-lected suddenly had new mean-ing and were very relevant.When we were choosing themwe were very moved by howthey spoke to this particular mo-ment,” she said, adding it madethem realize that an anthology“always gives voice to all the dif-ferent ‘Greeces.’” Charlotte andAngelos called it the OtherGreece. “There is a sense that
there are always other Greeces,and at this painful moment wehave to really embrace those be-cause if we get stuck on one par-ticular idea, we are not going tohelp them move forward.”
During the question and an-swer period, the presenterswhere asked about what wasunique about Greek poetry, withthe response that poetry “is avery personal thing,” though itwas noted that there is a kindof clarity in Greek poetry that isnot encountered in say, the Ger-man. “If there is something tosay, Greeks say it.” That made anumber of participants, includ-
ing Van Dyck, say they look for-ward to what Greece’s youngpoets will produce, who Con-stantine said have been produc-ing interesting work even beforethe crisis. He also noted that dueto the influx of immigrants it isan exciting time because for thefirst time since the Byzantine pe-riod a large number of youngGreek poets have roots in othercultures and languages.
Greek Consul Evangelos Kyr-iakopoulos also appreciated theefforts of the Camillos family.He told TNH “Angelo chose amost effective way to supportGreece because Greece is not
what we see on the news, it iswhat we read in these books, itwealth is its culture, the treasureof centuries.”
Kyriakopoulos noted thatOdysseus Elitis, during his No-bel Prize acceptance speech,said that throughout its historyGreece never stopped producingpoetry. He said the Norton bookshould grace everyone’s librarywith its message of optimismduring Greece’s difficult times,declaring, “The economic num-bers rise and fall but the Greekspirit endures.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, APRIL 21-27, 2012 3
Poetry Reading is Part of the Kouros Gallery’s Exhibit to Benefit Greece
Huffington Post in Pulitzer Triumph; Digital Media Keeps Rolling Along
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“The Other Greece” benefits the Fulbright Foundation Greece Scholarship Program. Galleryowner Angelo Camillos (L) stands before some of its artworks. Prof. Katherine Schwab of Fair-field University presented a lecture as one of the exhibit’s cultural offerings.
Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington has come a long way from her days as a young Greek girl toone of the most influential media presences in the United States and the world.
Every James Bond movieneeds a sexy bond girl and Greekactress Tonia Sotiropoulou hasbecome the latest beauty to jointhe cast of ‘Skyfall.’
The actress confessed it wasthe “happiest day of her life”when she heard news that shewould be playing opposite DanielCraig’s 007.
The 23rd installment of thelegendary spy drama has alreadystarted shooting in locationsaround the UK and while the ac-
tress is over the moon with herpart she has not yet revealedwhat that role is. The gorgeousbrunette took to Facebook to an-nounce the news.
She told the Greek press: “Ifeel very lucky and blessed, butbasically, I am very grateful thatthis happened, for my family andmy friends who believe in me andsupport trying to do.”
It will be a huge step up forthe actress who has previouslyonly appeared in minor TV roles
will now rub shoulders withRalph Finnes, Javier Bardem andDame Judi Dench in the spythriller.
According to fan sites the ac-tress will be filming scenes overfive days in Istanbul and she ismore than ready to get her teethinto the role.
“I will do the best, I am veryproud because somehow it mightbe something that will advertisein Greece and I am happy aboutit.” She added.
It has not been confirmedwhether Daniel Craig will be bed-ding the Greek beauty in his roleas the super sleuth but knowing‘James Bond’ he probably will.
With all the beautiful youngactresses, gadget and exotic lo-cations it is not a surprise thatDaniel Craig recently revealed hewill never quit the role.
“I know there’ll be someoneafter me and hopefully someoneafter them – I’m just trying tokeep the series going.”
Greek Beauty Revealed As New Bond Girl In 'Skyfall'
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COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, APRIL 21-27, 2012
By Michael J. Moore Bloomberg
Jamie Dimon, awarded $23million for running JPMorganChase & Co. (JPM) last year,earned 67 times the averageamount set aside for his invest-ment bankers and traders, thewidest gap among firms that re-port divisional pay.
Dimon, 56, chief executiveofficer of the New York-basedlender, was one of the few bankCEOs who avoided a pay cut for2011. The ratio of his compen-sation to the average for all em-ployees at JPMorgan’s invest-ment bank increased from 62times the previous year. At Mor-gan Stanley, CEO James Gor-man’s award was $10.5 million,25 percent less than for 2010and 40 times that company’s av-erage of $264,996.
CEO pay in banking hasdropped since peaking beforethe financial crisis, bringing theratio at most firms to between18-to-1 and 50-to-1 from somethat topped 100-to-1 in 2006and 2007. The ratios probablywon’t rebound to those levels inthe next decade because oflower profits, said Alan John-son, president of compensationconsultant Johnson AssociatesInc.
“Thirty to 50 times is proba-bly unsustainably low for the in-dustry, but that’s somewhat con-sistent with the bummer of ayear we had in 2011,” saidJohnson, whose firm is based inNew York. “If it stays there,that’s probably a really bad sign.It means the firms are still notdoing very well.”
SEC PAY RULEThe ratio gives a picture of
the rebound in CEO compensa-tion from 2008, when mostleaders didn’t take bonusesamid losses and governmentbailouts. That comes as lawmak-ers and regulators increase at-tention on the pay disparity be-tween top executives andworkers, and the Occupy WallStreet protests targeted incomeinequality.
The U.S. Securities and Ex-change Commission is draftinga rule, mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, that would force pub-lic companies to disclose the ra-tio of CEO compensation tomedian pay, the level at whichhalf the employees are aboveand half below. The rule waspushed to address concerns
about rising executive pay andincome inequality.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 57,who set a Wall Street pay recordin 2007, was awarded $12 mil-lion for 2011, a drop of 35 per-cent from a year earlier. That’s33 times the average amount of$367,057 set aside for all em-ployees at the New York-basedbank, down from 43 in 2010and 104 in 2007. Gorman’s ratiofell from the 179 times markthat predecessor John Mack setin 2005.
ACKERMANN, DOUGANJosef Ackermann, 64, who
will step down as CEO of Frank-furt-based Deutsche Bank AG(DBK) next month, made 6.3million euros ($8.3 million) or48 times the average compen-sation costs, down from 51 lastyear and 83 in 2007. Credit Su-isse AG CEO Brady Dougan’s2011 compensation of 5.82 mil-lion Swiss francs ($6.4 million)was 18 times the average payper employee in his firm’s in-vestment bank, down from 33for 2010.
Barclays Plc (BARC), basedin London, and UBS AG (UBSN)got new CEOs in 2011, and thefirms paid them more than theirpredecessors. While Barclays’sBob Diamond, 60, had his paycut by almost a third to 6.3 mil-lion pounds ($10 million), hiscompensation was more thanthat of previous CEO John Var-ley. That increased the ratio to31 times the average pay forBarclays Capital employees,from 17 in 2010.
Sergio Ermotti, 51, who tookover Zurich-based UBS after atrading scandal prompted Os-wald Gruebel to step down, re-ceived 6.35 million euros. Thatwas 19 times the average payset aside for investment-bankingemployees, up from 8 in 2010.
The average ratio among theseven lenders was 37 times,down from 38 a year earlier.
DIMON’S PAYOUT“If an organization or an in-
dustry sector doesn’t performwell, executive pay is going tosuffer most, and we’re startingto see the rubber hit the roadon that,” said Frank Glassner, aSan Francisco-based partner atexecutive-pay consulting firmMeridian Compensation Part-ners LLC. “Both risks and re-wards are greater in the C-suitethan it’s ever going to be amongthe workforce.”
Dimon bucked the pay trend.His 2011 compensation, thesame as the previous year, was50 percent higher than that ofany other CEO of a global in-vestment bank. He helped steerJPMorgan through the financialcrisis without posting a quar-terly loss while the firm ac-quired Bear Stearns Cos. andWashington Mutual Inc. in2008. The bank has since grownto be the largest lender in theU.S. by assets and the top globalfirm in investment banking andtrading revenue.
“JPMorgan has outper-formed its peers, and its execu-tive pay reflected that,” Glassnersaid. “I don’t think there’s a JP-Morgan shareholder out therewho would be complainingabout Jamie Dimon’s pay.”
COMP ARMS RACEJes Staley, 55, CEO of JPMor-
gan’s investment bank, said atthe firm’s investor day in Febru-ary that the board and manage-ment team decided to pay indi-vidual employees a comparableamount to what other firmspaid, rather than a similar per-centage of revenue. That led toa drop in compensation costs for2011 even as the division’s rev-enue climbed. The average payat the firm’s investment banklast year was $341,552.
“We delivered the lowestcomp-to-revenue ratio on theStreet for the benefit of you, our
shareholders,” Staley said. “Itavoided a comp arms race. If wehad paid a compensation-to-revenue ratio on average to therest of the industry, we wouldhave paid our traders, ourbankers, our sales people signif-icantly higher than the rest ofthe industry, and we’d be rightback into the race we saw overthe last 15 years.”
Jennifer Zuccarelli, a spokes-woman for JPMorgan in NewYork, declined to comment.
FIRST QUARTERAverage pay has continued
to decline this year. GoldmanSachs said today that it set aside$4.4 billion to compensate staffin the first quarter, 16 percentless than a year earlier andenough to give each of its32,400 employees $135,123.
Compensation costs at JP-Morgan’s investment bank fell12 percent to $2.9 billion in thefirst quarter, according to fig-ures posted on the firm’s web-site last week. The expense wasenough to pay each of the divi-sion’s 25,707 workers an aver-age of $112,849 for the firstthree months of the year.
The average compensationfigures don’t represent individ-ual workers’ actual pay and arederived by dividing the compen-sation pool by the number ofemployees. Banks includingMorgan Stanley (MS) and Gold-man Sachs said total compen-sation costs were higher thanactual pay because of deferredpayments awarded in previousyears and recognized in 2011.The pay figures for CEOs in-clude what they were grantedfor performance in that year anddon’t include gains from previ-ously awarded stock or options.
CITIGROUP REJECTIONThe ratio allows for compar-
isons between banks of differentsize and business mix. The com-panies included are among thebiggest that focus primarily onWall Street activities such as un-derwriting, trading and assetmanagement and that disclosepay and employee figures fortheir investment-banking divi-sions.
Citigroup Inc. (C) and Char-lotte, North Carolina-basedBank of America Corp. (BAC)don’t break out compensationcosts or personnel for their in-vestment-banking divisions andfeature large retail banks. Citi-group CEO Vikram Panditearned 155 times the average
pay expense for all workers atthe New York-based bank, in-cluding tellers, while Bank ofAmerica’s Brian T. Moynihan re-ceived 54 times the average payfor employees at his company.
Pandit, 55, was awarded $15million for 2011, up from $1 theprevious year. Moynihan, 52, re-ceived $7 million, down from$10 million.
Citigroup shareholders todayrejected the bank’s executivecompensation plan in an advi-sory vote amid criticism it wouldlet Pandit collect rewards tooeasily. About 45 percent of thevotes were in favor of the plan,according to a preliminary tallyat the New York-based firm’s an-nual meeting in Dallas. In addi-tion to Pandit’s 2011 pay, Citi-group gave him a separatemulti-year retention packagethat may be valued at $40 mil-lion.
EXECUTIVE EXCESSSection 953(b) of the Dodd-
Frank Act instructs the SEC torequire public companies to dis-close the ratio between the com-pensation of their CEOs and em-ployee medians. The latemanagement theorist PeterDrucker said that the ratioshould stretch no wider than 25-to-1.
CEO pay in the U.S. in 2010was 325 times what workers av-eraged, according to the annualsurvey “Executive Excess,” pub-lished by the Institute for PolicyStudies, a Washington- based re-search group critical of high ex-ecutive pay.
Compensation for bank CEOsraises “fairness questions” thatgo beyond spreads within theirown companies, said Sarah An-derson, the organization’s globaleconomy project director andone of the authors of the study.
“They were one of the driversof the crash that left a lot of peo-ple in horrible financial straits,and now they’re bouncingback,” Anderson said. “Theproblems aren’t just how pay isstructured, but when the overalllevels of pay get so high, theyencourage outrageous behav-ior.”
MORE COMPLEXAnother 2010 study, using a
method similar to the one out-lined in Dodd-Frank and con-ducted by Culpepper and Asso-ciates Inc., acompensation-survey firm basedin Alpharetta, Georgia, foundthat the ratio was about 92-to-
1 for companies with more than$2.5 billion in revenue.
The SEC has had many meet-ings with market participantsabout the requirement, which is“quite prescriptive,” agencyChairman Mary Schapiro saidlast month during a Congres-sional hearing. Among otherthings, companies will have toconsider the value of benefitswhen computing median com-pensation figures.
“There are a lot of burdensto making the calculation be-cause it’s an average of all em-ployees that firms are reallystruggling with and we’re tryingto work through,” Schapiro said.“It’s not just that we could takethe W-2 forms and come upwith an average and then com-pare it to the CEO’s compensa-tion. It’s much more complexthan that.”
SEC staff is working on a pro-posal that it intends to recom-mend to the commissioners inthe first half of this year, accord-ing to a proposed timeline onthe agency’s website. The pro-vision has no mandated dead-line, Schapiro said.
FABULOUSLY WEALTHYSome smaller companies
have disclosed the data aheadof the requirement. Bond in-surer MBIA Inc. (MBI) disclosedthe average and median pay inits proxy filing last month. Ex-cluding the executive officersnamed in the filing, the mediansalary and bonus of its 373 em-ployees was $180,000. The av-erage salary and bonus was$247,200.
Jay Brown, CEO of MBIA, de-clined a bonus for last year’sperformance, collecting only his$500,000 salary. That wouldmake his pay twice that of theaverage employee and 2.8 timesthe median.
Shareholders and regulatorsshould want the ratio of CEOcompensation to average pay toincrease, since it serves more asan indicator of economic growththan as a breakdown of corpo-rate governance, Johnson said.Still, Anderson of the Institutefor Policy Studies said share-holders shouldn’t be concernedabout their executives’ well-be-ing.
“Even taking a year or twooff from getting a bonus, in thegrand scheme of things, they’restill going to wind up fabulouslywealthy at the end of their ca-reers,” Anderson said.
Greek-American Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan’s CEO, Did not Take a Pay Cut
Jamie Dimon
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By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – New York StateAssemblywoman Aravella Simo-tas held a rally in her Astoria dis-trict in early April to oppose theNYC Department of Education’splans to close William CullenBryant High School. She wasgraduated from Bryant in 1995,so the issue is both very personalto her and important for thecommunity she represents.
Mayor Michael Bloomberghad slated 33 public schools forclosure that were on the state’slist of “Persistently LowestAchieving” (PLA) schools, in-cluding Bryant and nearby LongIsland City High School, essen-tially concluding they cannot besaved. They will be subjected tothe “Turnaround” model, themost drastic of four options,which entails closing the schooland reopening it under a newname or with multiple smallerand specialized schools in thesame building – ending its exis-tence as a “Comprehensive”high school. All the teacherswould be let go, though up to50 percent could be rehired bythe school(s).
Simotas believes the eu-phemistically-named Turn-around model will not only killthe school, but it will harm thestudents as well.
High school graduations arerituals that combine, relief, ex-citement, fond farewells, andheady idealism. The speakers of-ten declare that each graduate
is capable of doing somethingto make the world a betterplace. Few principals imagineone of the students may one daybe in a position to spare theschool itself from the wreckingball, literally or figuratively, asSimotas did that afternoon.
Simotas led the charge tosave her Alma matter at an April3 rally that preceded a DOEhearing at the school thatevening. Along with NY StateSenator Michael Gianaris, she
testified and at the hearing,which was attended by commu-nity leaders such as Costas Con-stantinides, and representativesfor Congresswoman CarolynMaloney and City CouncilmanPeter Vallone, Jr.
A rally for Long Island CityHigh School – which Gianarisattended - was held on April 16,a day before that school’s sched-uled hearing.
At the Bryant hearing, Simo-tas said, “Our students come
first, and we should alwayswork to make improvementsthat ensure they get the best ed-ucation possible…But thesedrastic changes will only in-crease uncertainty and stunt anyprogress that students, teachersand administrators have beenable to make.”
“No one knows better thanthe community what our stu-dents need,” she said, tellingTNH that last year, there was anagreement with the City for a
less drastic approach. Instead ofTurnaround, it was agreed thata certain changes would bemade. Simotas said “they weresupposed to wait for the resultsof those changes.” There was anew principal, and programs tohelp the teachers, all aimed atboosting the graduation rate,which was the critical issue.Schools with four-year gradua-tion rates under 50 percent losefederal funds.
“Of the 33 schools, themayor announced he will notclose seven, and I applaud himfor that, however, none of thosewere in Queens, which is themost diverse borough in thecity,” she noted.
Simotas says a number ofpowerful mitigating factorsmust be taken into account, in-cluding the fact that Bryant hasa large percentage of the stu-dents who are not native Eng-lish speakers. “They can’t grad-uate in four years…It takesthem a year just to learn the lan-guage.” She said the City claimsto have taken that into consid-eration, but no one knows whatthe criteria are, adding, “It’s nota transparent process.”
As an example she told TNH“The mayor’s report gave theschool a D for school environ-ment. I don’t know how theycame up with that. Anyone whosets foot in Bryant knows thestudents and teachers are verymotivated. I have had a lot ofinteraction with the students….The children I spoke to saidthey were never asked about the
Bryant environment.”And she believes that more
than 50 percent of the teachersshould return, pointing out thatthe teacher evaluation systemthat was agreed to by the NewYork State legislature has yet tobe implemented.
Student body presidentSotiria Zouroudi declared that“everyone keeps saying thatwith this Turnaround methodstudents don't get affected;while in reality they [do]. Wewill end up losing teachers thathave helped us, pushed us tolearn and people that we don'tfeel embarrassed to go to in or-der to extra help in a subject wewill need. It will be like the firstday of high school all overagain. This plan doesn't affectonly the teachers, but the schoolas a whole,” according to a pressrelease from Simotas’ office.
Simotas pledged to workwith her fellow lawmakers andcommunity leaders to find a so-lution that would allow theschool to make progress whilekeeping it intact.
Simotas is also fighting awider battle to preserve Com-prehensive schools such asBryant. “Students of differentinterests and abilities minglingand learning from one anotherare the hallmark of a public ed-ucation,” Simotas said. “A Com-prehensive high school providesa general education to childrenwho have not yet chosen theircareer path. This is a necessityin a community as diverse asWestern Queens.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, APRIL 21-27, 2012 5
A few years ago an all-but forgotten piece ofthe history of New York and the Greek-Americancommunity was revealed on 8th Avenue and 43rdStreet in the Chelsea (formerly Hell’s Kitchen)neighborhood of Manhattan. For those who thinkAstoria is and always was New York’s “Greek-town,” we must inform you that the area betweenTimes Square and what is now Lincoln Centerfor the Performing Arts was where most of NewYork City’s immigrant Greek community was con-centrated for much of the 20th century. The
Church of St. George, now off the beaten track ofthe community, was right in its heart at 307 West54th Street, and the original location of theChurch of the Evangelismos, now far up Manhat-tan’s West Side, was also nearby.
Hell’s Kitchen was the home of many Greekbusinesses – including famous restaurants andnightclubs – and as one would guess from its clas-sic working-class name, of more humble estab-lishments. During the renovation of a buildingaround 2006 the beaten up sign of the Dixon
Cafeteria came to light – a few letters were miss-ing, leading some to believe it was a café, some-thing a bit more fancy than was actually the case,but it was the beloved spot of many Greeks whopassed their time there after it opened in 1946and became famous for homemade bread and yo-gurt.
The Greeks who patronized the Dixon are longgone (may their memories be eternal) but theirstories live on in their children, nieces, nephews,grandchildren, and their friends. One of the lis-
teners and creators is Phyllis Sembos, who willentertain the readers of TNH in the coming weekswith a number of stories, some factual, someworks of fiction, about the life of America’sGreeks.
We hope you will enjoy them, in addition tothe submissions of others, and we invite you toencourage more people to share fiction and truestories about the Greek-American experience fromall over the USA. Contact us [email protected].
By Phyllis (Kiki) Sembos
Dixon Cafeteria was locatedin Midtown Manhattan and wasthe popular eating place, host-ing tourists, workers in the area,and even the corporate world,mainly, because of its cleanli-ness, fast service and good cof-fee. The good coffee was, espe-cially, appreciated by a group ofmiddle-aged Greek men whofrequented the place every Sun-day, occupying the same tablesituated before the wide, frontwindow. The table seated six.The gentlemen were five, so, aseat was taken away and shut-tled into an adjoining table toprevent the uninvited fromcrashing.
There, they could, comfort-ably, speak their language, telltheir concerns, discuss politicsand solve the world’s ills withthe ease of a VIP.
Dimos, an astute observer ofpeople, was married with twochildren, owned a diner on the
West Side of Manhattan andhad common sense and acuteforethought.
Kipreos, a perennial bache-lor, was a pastry chef in one ofthe better hotels, enjoyed beinginvited to various houses eachSunday for sumptuous dinnersby anxious mamas with mar-riageable daughters.
John owned a flower shopon Sixth Avenue. Married withno children, he had the endlessburden of trying to marry twosisters in Greece who were un-marriageable due to having nodowry, not being particularly at-tractive, and enjoying themoney John sent regularly.
George, a mechanic, married
with one daughter, dressed likean executive on week ends. Helooked forward to long walksdowntown and, especially, en-joyed meeting his cronies atDixon Cafeteria.
That leaves Yiannis, who waslooked upon as indolent, cun-ning, cheap, and calculating.The Army drafted him duringWW II and just before orderscame that he be sent over seasan accident happened.
He shot himself in the legwhile cleaning his rife therebyearning him a medical dischargeand a steady check due to theunfortunate (or, fortunate)mishap.
Ten years later, Yiannis an-nounced to those seated sur-rounding him that he decidedto get married.
That bit of news was notseen by the others as feasible orpractical since he was chroni-cally unemployed, ate regularlyat his married sister’s house andwas, in general, lazy.
He, strongly, objected to thereference – preferring to belooked upon as a wounded vet.
Thereby begins the storiesabout a group of Greek men
who shared and discussed amyriad of topics, not unlikewhat might have occurred inPlaka, a suburb of Athens, in An-cient times.
TNH Presents First Installment of New Feature Column: Greek-American Stories
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Assemblywoman Simotas Strives to Save her Alma Mater, Bryant High
Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas led a rally to save her Alma Mater, William Cullen BryantHigh School in Astoria, which the NYC Department of Education plans to close.
GREEK-AMERICAN STORIES
A Look Back at Greektown in Old New York: The Greeks of the Dixon
Many Greeks of NY’s original Greek Town solved the problemsof the world and their friends in Dixon’s Cafeteria.
With its snazzy red-and-yellow food bar, the Dixon invited pa-trons to “enjoy a leisurely meal and the finest liquors” andpromised fare “as economically as quality permits.”
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COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, APRIL 21-27, 2012
of cruelty and injustice: The At-tica State Correctional Facility.
The journey to Attica is bestundertaken along a route thatpasses through the states ofNew Jersey and Pennsylvania.It is a pleasant enough trip forthose who are not being sent toa dangerous place against theirwill. Later in the year, it wouldbe a beautiful one – at the highaltitudes of the route, springwas still a few weeks behindNew York City. Pines and otherevergreens were a minority andthe deciduous trees that domi-nated the landscape were stillbare. It was interstate highwaysalmost all the way, which passfar for the quaint and historictowns that dot the landscape,and the trip was educational. Itis clear that upstate New York,once a global powerhouse ofmanufacturing, is now a symp-tom of the deindustrializationof America. But one also seesthat outside of our cities, agri-culture is still the dominant wayof life, and is very big business.There were many, many cows.
The sky was mostly blue,which kept our spirits bright,but most importantly, we knewthat we would soon be takingthe reverse journey back to ourown homes and loved ones.
Twelve men and women ofthe jury unanimously concludedthat Giamagas had to go toprison, but would they havebeen certain had they beenthere with us that day and hada conversation with the man?Are jurors ever shown moviesabout what prison life is like?Again, he was accused of threat-ening the worst kind of violence,but there is news of the releaseof wrongly-convicted people allthe time.
The charges he was con-victed of seem clear-cut, but thestory is not. The stolen propertywas $267,000 in back rent,which Giamagas claimed he didnot owe, and $25,000 from oneof seven blank checks he saidhe was given to cover expenseshis for which his landlord wasresponsible.
He was arraigned in Manhat-tan Criminal Court on March20, 2009 for crimes prosecutorssaid occurred between Decem-ber 1, 2007 and March 1, 2009.He and two others were chargedwith threatening the landlord’sagent when he came to collectback rent. “Such threats in-cluded: pointing a realistic-look-ing imitation pistol at the land-lord’s agent and threatening totorture the agent if the agentdid not give the defendantsblank company checks,” accord-ing to the Manhattan DA’s pressrelease.
On February 5, 2010, Giama-gas was convicted on the fol-lowing: two counts of Robberyin the Second Degree, one countof Robbery in the First Degree,one count of Grand Larceny inthe Second Degree, and threecounts of Criminal Possession ofa Weapon in the Fourth Degree.He was acquitted of coercionand other Robbery counts andthe kidnapping charges weredropped.
If he had pled guilty, Giama-gas’ sentence would have been11 years. He refused, saying “Idid not do what you are saying.”
His explanation is simple,and the plot of his story is fa-miliar to crime story devotees:Overzealous prosecutors whosquandered taxpayers’ moneyon an expensive investigationhad no choice but to send themto trial. He said the injustice wascompounded through the al-leged failure of the judge toproperly instruct the jury abouthow to view the evidence,which he called weak.
He and his business partner,Ekkehart Schwarz, had formeda corporation, G&S RestaurantsLLC, to open an establishmentin Manhattan’s West Villagecalled the Restaulounge-BarDe‘Vill, but their landlord al-legedly made it impossible toopen the business and realizetheir dreams, and their bank ac-counts were being bled dry.
They signed a lease that stip-ulated what each party wouldbe required to do so they couldobtain a certificate of occupancy,which was also critical gettinga liquor license. When theycomplained to their landlord’sagent about delays and invokedthe terms of the lease to justifytheir not paying rent until thework was done, the agent calledthe police and accused them ofbeing mobsters, and saying theythreatened him when he triedto collect the rent.
Perhaps all who are con-victed see things more clearlythan the citizens who must passjudgment on them.
The New York press paintedGiamagas in the most luridterms as the “tenant from hell.”Giamagas and Schwarz pinnedthat label on the landlord andhis agent, an Iranian immigrantnamed Niroo Yavari. Giamagas,Schwarz, and a third person,Kakhaber Gogoladze, lost the“he said – he said” battle. There
was police surveillance, but Gi-amagas claims the recordingswere far from clear.
MEETING THE MANInto a small room next to the
cafeteria for the people whovisit the inmates – mainly theirfamilies – a tall, well-groomedman entered, escorted by aguard. He was friendly and po-lite, and deeply appreciative ofour visit – it was the first timein two years anyone had come.All who care about him are an
ocean away. Except for his girl-friend, who still cares about himand talks to him, but he brokeup with her when the troublesbegan and now she lives in Cal-ifornia.
After a few minutes of con-versation it was apparent theprisoner was an intelligent andaccomplished man. He said hewas a trained chef and a suc-cessful businessman, havingopened 18 restaurants in hisyoung life.
He came to America withlimited English speaking skills.He has become fluent in Englishmore quickly than most immi-grants, however, but not fromreading novels or the New YorkTimes, which seems not to careabout him beyond an April 22,2009 article announcing his in-
dictment. He has had to becomeconversant with the Constitu-tion and other laws of theUnited States, because he is des-perately seeking to appeal hisconviction and regain his free-dom.
Giamagas is lucky that hedoes not have to share his cellwith anyone. Although they aredesigned for only one inmate,many inmates at Attica are dou-bled up in the still-overcrowdedfacility. It is not known what hecan see from the bars on thewindow, but Attica is a huge
maximum security facility, withmany buildings and 2159 in-mates.
From outside, the place looksmore dull than forbidding. Thewalls are tall and grey, but everyfew hundred feet there are tur-reted towers reminiscent of theKremlin in Moscow. Childrencould easily mistake it for a cas-tle, but the reality on the insidereflects more the nightmares ofchildhood than its storybooks.The list of one time inmates in-
cludes David Berkowitz, betterknown as Son of Sam, and MarkDavid Chapman, who killedJohn Lennon.
Even from within the partsof Attica that visitors see is notfrightening – at least betweenthe main gate and the visitorscenter there is no barbed wire,or visible gun emplacements.But it is depressing. That much,visitors are prepared for as theydrive there. After leaving thehighway, the smaller rural roadsare nice enough. Even the vil-lage of Attica appears to be apleasant place, but as carsprogress to the prison, the singlefamily house appear to be inmore disrepair and there arefew signs of children and re-tirees that might form at leastpart of the population of some
upstate villages and smalltowns.
At one point visitors realizethe nicer houses are probablythe homes of prison employees,including the guards, and themore run-down ones are placesrented by the financially-pressedloved ones of the inmates.
Giamagas’ life was not aneasy one prior to his arrival inAmerica. His father Apostolos,with roots on the Island ofSamothrace, died in 1988 whenGiamagas was 15 years old. Hesaid his mother Xanthoula, who
hails from Katerini, madetremendous sacrifices to raisehim. He also has a brother,Demetrios, who is ten yearsolder.
Giamagas’ parents met inBelgium and moved to Ger-many, where they married.Apostolos owned a restaurant,indicating a path that was to Gi-amagas’ liking. The son studiedat a culinary school and contin-ued his training at Hotel Nikko,a Japanese venue in Dusseldorf.
He opened his first restau-rant in 1994 with his brother,and then fulfilled his Greek mil-itary service. Eventually heopened 18, mainly in the Dus-seldorf-Cologne area.
America began to lure himin 2005. He was part-owner ofa restaurant and his partner hadfriends in the United States whowere opening their own. Theywere impressed with the estab-lishments he had opened in Ger-many, and they arranged for histo come to the United States andhelp them to open one inBrighton Beach in Brooklyn. Heenjoyed his two-month stay andresolved to return to open hisown place, which he did in2006.
After he received his B1 “vis-itor for business travel” visa thatwas good through 2015, Giama-gas came to New York andlooked for a restaurant oppor-tunity. He met Schwarz, a Ger-man architect who had a restau-rant in Harlem near City Collegeat 140th street. It was not doingwell, and Schwarz asked Gia-magas to join him as a partnerto help build it up. They ran itfor a year and then decided toopen another place downtown.They established G&S.
The two men found a spacein the West Village at 68 West3rd Street and signed a lease onAugust 1, 2007. G&S made pay-ments of $79,500 for securityand $16,500 for the firstmonth’s rent. The contractspelled out what the landlordwas obligated to do and whatG&S needed to do. The formerhad six weeks to complete thework according to the lease. Gi-amagas told TNH they only metthe actual landlord one time. Allbusiness was handled by the lat-ter’s manager, Niloo Yavari.
The first thing to do was tomove a chimney that was in themiddle of the space and installan external chimney. There wasalso a load-bearing wall thathad to be replaced with a steelstructure. Schwarz said it wasimpossible to complete it in sixweeks, but Yavari insisted itwould be done.
It was the first sign thatthings would not go well.
At the very least, communi-
cation was strained from thestart, and there appeared to beheavy doses of naiveté or wish-ful thinking on both sides. Theinevitable frustrations could eas-ily flare up into anger.
Eight weeks later, the land-lord had not even hired some-one to do the work, let alonecommenced construction. ByOctober 20, Schwarz told him“we have begun our part but wecannot continue. What’s goingon? We call you but don’t an-swer.”
They arranged to meet a fewdays later at the store. Yavariexplained that he was very busyand agreed that since Eckhartwas an architect, he could helpby hiring the appropriate peopleand that Yavari would pay forthe work. Giamagas said Yavarivoluntarily gave them blankchecks – Yavari later claimedthat he was coerced.
A follow-up meeting wasscheduled for October. G&S hadoriginally hoped to open by thenand they were now bleedingmoney.
Giamagas explained that hepresented Yavari with two pro-posals for him and the landlordto look at for how to proceed.He said they were based onparagraph 69 of their lease,which he said spelled out day-to-day rent abatement beyondthe initial six-week period untilthe work was done. The newproposals were meant to estab-lish practical deadlines to movethe work forward. He said thefirst called for G&S to be paid$200,000 if the work were notfinished by a certain date, thesecond one granted six monthrent abatement, but Giamagassaid he also told him, “or comeup with your own proposal.”
Giamagas said Yavari madea phone call, and then he signedone of the papers on his ownand left. That became the basisof the charges of coercion androbbery as G&S believed theyhad the right not to make anymore rent payments until thework was done.
From that point on, he saidthey would visit Yavari to pickup checks to pay for the con-struction Giamagas said was the
landlord’s responsibility accord-ing to the lease, but there wasan additional dimension Giama-gas said they did not knowabout when they signed: Thebuilding had a number of viola-tions the landlord had to takecare of going back as far as1985. If they were not cor-rected, G&S could not obtain anew certificate of occupancy(CO), which had to be changedfrom 25 to 75 people to openthe restaurant.
Giamagas said G&S haddone what the contract requiredof them, installing a new sprin-kler system, gas lines, etc. butthe landlord had to correct andpay for the building’s longstand-ing violations, and time waspassing. The steel structure wasfinally completed by January,2008, but the it is not clear toTNH whether G & S should haveresumed paying rent at thattime according to the terms ofthe lease, but plumbing work,new boilers, the resolution ofthe building violations, and thepayment of the penalties hadyet to occur, so the crucial COwas nowhere in sight.
Giamagas told TNH that onJanuary 21, 2009, after threemonths of futile attempts tomeet with Yavari, he went to hisoffice to complain. Again he saidhe was overwhelmed with work,but Giamagas told him therewere now two options: eithereverything will be taken care ofby the end of the month, or theywill take the landlord to courtfor breach of contract. “Youchoose,” he said.
He also told Yavari G&S had$260,000 in the bank and wereready to move forward. Later,the prosecution would claimlack of funds was G&S’ motivefor stealing rent.
They made an appointmentto meet again at G&S’ office inTribeca a week later on January21, 2009. At about 10 AM onthat day, they had arranged forGogoladze, a 6’ 5” 350-lb. se-curity manager at a nearbyDean & Deluca store, to pick upYavari with car service. Giama-gas said he was going to behired to run security for the newrestaurant, that he was a pro-fessional, and was once thebodyguard of Eduard Shevard-nadze, the former President ofGeorgia.
This was the event that pros-ecutors at first called a kidnap-ping. Giamagas said that andother charges were absurd be-cause after the meeting he con-tinued to have dealings withYavari, whose behavior was notconsonant with what he soonaccused Giamagas of. Giamagasasked TNH “If it was true thatthey had kidnapped and threat-ened him by putting a gun tohis head,” why Yavari didn’t callthe police that very day.
When they arrived Eckhartwas still at the restaurant. TheNew York Times said Javari’stestimony was “like a scenefrom ‘The Sopranos,’” addingthat Yavari was confronted with“a scary setup” that included “atarp on which stood a wickerchair and a table containing pli-ers, a hammer, a screwdriverand a candle…One of the menbrandished a fake gun.”
TNH does not possess thetranscripts of the trial, but Gia-magas said that Yavari declaredunder oath that he was notthreatened and force was notused on him. Giamagas saideverything should have been
Greek-American Restaurateur in Attica Prison Plans Appeal
Vassileios Giamagas greets Ethnikos Kirix senior writerDemetrios Tsakas (L) after being escorted by prison guard
(center). Another guard remained in the room during the in-terview. TNH senior writer Constantine Sirigos is at far right.
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Continued from page 1
One of the many cells at the Attica State Correctional Facility.When it opened in the 1930s, it was presented as an improve-ment over prisons like the notorious Sing Sing.
The unfinished Restaulounge-Bar DeVill in Manhattan’s West Village was a dream-turned-nightmare for Giamagas.
PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ
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cleared up when “Yavari admit-ted ‘my imagination went wildwhen I saw the screwdriver onthe table.’”
Nonetheless, at the trialYavari said he then called thelandlord and accused Giamagasof being a Russian mobster, andthat he had threatened him sothat they would not pay anyrent. That was when they de-cided to call the police.
Giamagas told TNH that inthe notebook of one of the firstpolicemen who spoke to them,the officer wrote of Javari’s ac-cusations: “We don’t believe it.”
But two days later the NYPDinitiated an investigation, plac-ing Giamagas and Schwarz un-der surveillance, but Giamagassaid they did not come up withanything.
Giamagas then told TNH thaton February 11, 2009 he wentto Javari’s office but found itclosed – “he might have beenthere but he didn’t open.” Yavarithat day called the police, againsaying Giamagas came tothreaten him, and at that pointthe police obtained a warrant tomonitor their phone calls.
“The investigation was con-ducted by members of the NewYork County District Attorney’sDetective Squad, by lead inves-tigators Detectives John Petersand Michael Truck, under theSupervision of LieutenantPatrick Johnson, Sergeant Ed-ward England and Sergeant An-thony Gonzalez. Assistant Dis-trict Attorneys (ADA) JamesMeadows and Matthew Singerof the Rackets Bureau presentedthe case to the Grand Jury un-der the supervision of AssistantDistrict Attorneys Eric Seidel,Bureau Chief, and Daniel Cort,Deputy Bureau Chief,” accord-ing to a press release by the DA’soffice.
TNH has confirmed thatMeadows has left the DA’s officeand has returned to privatepractice at a firm at which hepreviously worked.
On March 9 at 8:51 AM,everything came crashing downfor Giamagas. After leaving hisapartment at 140 Street, the po-lice came in force and arrestedGiamagas. They seized comput-ers and papers at his apartmentand the G&S office. Schwarzand Gogoladze were also ar-rested.
Giamagas was taken down-town to 1 Police Plaza. “I wasin a room by myself for sevenhours, handcuffed. No one toldme what was going on or why Iwas arrested, but they were po-lite. I was not mistreated in anyway.”
He could not call his family -only domestic calls are permit-ted in jails and prisons – but fi-nally another inmate sold hima phone card and after eightdays he was finally able to talkto his mother, telling her to con-tact Joseph, his old partner inGermany. He said she should tellhim to find him a lawyer be-cause his wife was an Americancitizen.
PRISON LIFEGiamagas arrived at Attica
on May 6, 2010. He has beenthere almost two years. TNHasked about him about hismorale. “Every day I fight,” hesaid, to maintain his spirit.“Greeks have the good that weare fighters and we have faith. Iread the Bible and I have re-quested the Bible in Greek fromthe Greek Orthodox Church butI have not received one. Askedif he wants a priest to come andgive him communion and to re-ceive his confession he said “itis always a good thing whensomeone visits. Especially aGreek man I can speak to moreeasily.” TNH promised to contactthe Orthodox Christian PrisonMinistry (OCPM).
Giamagas has two jobs at theprison. He works with the main-tenance department and as aporter delivering food and waterto inmates. He fixes plumbingand electricity, saying he said helearned on the job, and adding“you learn to do everything soyou don’t have to spend moretime in your cell.”
He only gets paid $9 everytwo weeks, but it helps the timeto pass.
He said 95 percent of theguards know him, and see thathe is not looking for trouble. Amaintenance employee toldTNH he is a very good worker.
Giamagas uses what funds hehas to buy books so he can edu-cate himself about the Americanlegal process. “I study every-thing I can and I’ve gathered alot of documents and affidavitssupporting my claim.”
His codefendants are inmedium security prison, eightyears for Ekkehart in New Or-leans, and five for Gogoladze.
THE RIGHT TO APPEALGiamagas is working hard to
appeal his conviction. He saidhe had a great trial lawyer, Jen-nifer Bonjean, a regular gueston FOX News, CNN, and CourtTV, but he needs a differentlawyer for the appeal process.He said even though his co-de-fendants had their own attor-neys, Bonjean did the bulk ofthe work and was responsiblefor getting a number of thecharges dropped for each ofthem.
The home page of Bonjean’sfirm quotes the great politicalphilosopher Montesquieu:“There is not crueler tyrannythan that which is perpetratedunder the shield of law in thename of justice.”
At this time, Giamagas’ pri-ority is to find an attorney. Hewelcomes assistance from any-one who can help him find one.“Everyone who is interested inthe truth and will fight for it iswelcome to help. Anyone whowants to just make a name forhimself is not welcome. This ismy life they are playing with.I’m not going to let them playwith my life anymore,” he said,showing anger for the only timeduring the hour-long interview.
“I believe I can demonstr
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