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The National Herald - September 30-October 6, 2017

$15 Million Missing from St. Nicholas Special Account

Efforts to deal with “mismanagement” continue, requests for comment declined

By Theodore Kalmoukos

His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Geron of America has acknowledged that there was mismanagement of the Archdiocese finances and that efforts are being made to remedy the situation.

NEW YORK – $15 million is missing from a special account for the rebuilding of the St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero.

This was discovered in a special meeting held by officials at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in New York, on September 26.

No one seems to know where the money is, and no one has taken responsibility for it.

Initially, The National Herald reported that $3.8 million was transferred from the St. Nicholas account to the Archdiocese for the latter’s operating expenses.

It was later found that the situation appears to be far more serious.

Archbishop Demetrios presided over the meeting, which was also attended by Vice Chair of the Archdiocesan Council George Tsandikos, Archdiocesan Chancellor His Grace Bishop Andonios of Phasiane, V. Rev. Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne Alexander Karloutsos, Archdiocesan CFO Fr. Soterios Baroody, and Archdeacon Panteleimon Papadopoulos.

None of the attendees knew anything about the missing $15 million. The ones who would possibly know, because they managed the project, are Jerry Dimitriou and George Papadakos, and both were recently fired.

Demetrios, Tsandikos, Andonios, and Baroody all declined TNH’s request for comment.

Fr. Karloutsos response to TNH was “no comment, for now.” It was Father Karloutsos who mobilized the community that resulted in the collection of large contributions.

During all these years, the Archdiocese did not provide any report about the collected amounts of donations from prominent wealthy Greek-Americans, from the Leadership 100, the parishes, the Philoptochos, AHEPA, and the congregants of the communities.

With few exceptions, the metropolises contributed small amounts.

TNH has learned that a prominent member of the Archdiocesan Council, Leadership 100, and Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is determined to go to the attorney general if he does not receive satisfactory answers.

Meanwhile, George Papadakos of the Archdiocese’s Finance Department was recently fired. He served as Director of Finance for a number of years, and was a close collaborator with Jerry Dimitriou, Executive Director of Administration, who was also recently let go.

Papadakos did not discuss why he was fired and referred TNH to CFO Fr. Soterios Baroody, who did not respond to TNH’s request for comment.

On September 25, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Geron of America for the first time spoke with the personnel about the state of the Archdiocese, but he painted a rosy picture that all is well. Bishop Andonios and Tsandikos were there as well.

Demetrios did acknowledge “mismanagement” and that efforts are made to overcome it, with a positive perspective that all will be well again.

The Αrchbishop did not mention anything about the economic crisis, or bankruptcy. He did not make any reference to hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by the Archdiocese, as TNH recently reported in the case of Finance Committee Chairman George Vourvoulias, who was paid $900,000 for travel expenses over ten years.

TNH estimates that to date, 18 full-time and 12 part-time employees were dismissed.

The hope of Demetrios is for wealthy Greek-Americans to give money to cover the $8.5 million deficit, because there would be tremendous backlash if the Archdiocese attempted to increase allocations of the parishes instead.

There are also questions as to whether the grants given by Leadership 100 for ministries have been utilized for those purposes.

Meanwhile many within the Archdiocese and in wider ecclesiastic circles wonder whether Demetrios is genuinely out of touch with the Archdiocese’s dire financial state or is intentionally attempting to camouflage it.

[ The National Herald - September 30-October 6, 2017 - pp. 1 & 7 ]

[ The National Herald
  www.thenationalherald.com/176472/15-million-missing-st-nicholas-special-account/
  September 28, 2017 ]