One More Scandalous Non-Profit: The Hellenic Initiative

EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis): Not one day goes by that we do not hear of someone in a local or national “power position” to exploit a non-profit organization. A few days ago it became clear that the non-profit operated by the corrupt BIDEN family for cancer research spent millions (or 70% of its operating budget) on salaries!! In our community exploiting non-profits for personal benefit has become a hobby for the well-known predators…  The latest example the Hellenic Initiative, which, unlike the Biden non-profit, is still active… Kudos to our friend of concernedorthodoxchristians.wordpress.com for revealing the naked truth…

SOURCE:CONCERNEDORTHODOXCHRISTIANS.WORDPRESS.COM

By now, every faithful Orthodox Christian within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America should be familiar with Elaine Allen, who is continuing in her position as the Archdiocesan Council Treasurer (so much for accountability in the GOA). Allen is notorious for giving a difficult and hard time for our smaller sister parishes throughout the country when it comes to budgeting and transparency.

It should come to a little bit of a shock then to discover her role in another non-profit organization that provides a lack of transparency. We, of course, are referring to the famous Hellenic Initiative (or THI as people call it). THI is a non-profit based in the United States with many prominent Greeks, including:

Andrew Liveris as its chairman (kicked out from Dow Chemicals Exclusive: SEC investigates allegations of misspending by Dow Chemical CEO – source: Reuters)
Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark (no comments)
Fr. Alex Karloutsos (as its “spiritual” advisor)
And many more.

Yesterday evening they held their “Virtual Gala,” hosted by a famous Greek singer (Sakis Rouvas) and complete with remarks from the Prime Minister of Greece Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Rita Wilson, Princess Tatiana and others.

You can follow this link to see their 2018 tax returns.

If you proceed to page 8 you’ll notice that they paid:
-$166,000 to Poulos Brothers Inc. (a company owned by Peter Poulos who resides in Greece) for “fundraising,” and
-$142,363 to a company called “Impetus Service” that’s based in Cyprus. That company is owned by Michael Printzos, who is the Hellenic Initiative’s program director and lives in Greece too.

The above salaries are outrageous even for New York in the non-profit space, let alone for residents of Greece. To put things in perspective, most Greek corporate CEO’s and even the director of the Central Bank of Greece make less than 100,000 euros/year.

In the same page you’ll find Mark Arey (a former GOA priest who “retired” – aka defrocked – in 2013 for wanting to marry a woman), who was then the Executive Director and made $250,000!

If you proceed to page 10 you’ll see that they also spent:
-$46,898 in “other salaries,”
-$50,068 in travel,
-$780,556 in event expenses,
-$41,000 in office expenses,
-$275,622 in “other” (11g). (We’re having a hard time deciphering what this could exactly include. Might include Father Alex Karloutsos’ cut), and
-$50,590 in accounting.

According to the filing, the accounting firm is Mitchel Titus, based in NYC. One of the main partners is none other that the infamous Elaine Allen. That much money for a non-profit organization of this size that barely accomplishes anything of significance is unheard of and should be questioned!

It should be noted that in 2019, Peter Poulos took over as Executive Director and according to sources, he makes more money than Mark Arey from the organization. The 990s forms from 2019 are yet to be published for confirmation. Additionally, an in-depth look in the above statements confirms that Peter Poulos made a percentage of the funds raised during the organizations two main events, one in NYC and one in London.

The filings also hint that they dipped into their investment accounts for 2018! Why? For what reason would they need to dip into their investment accounts? Seems absurd. If only there was more transparency!

To summarize, three people working for The Hellenic Initiative made almost as much as the $700,000 in grants they sent to Greece for “direct crisis relief and business initiatives”. We have yet to confirm which organizations have received those grants. We all know that the people who serve on the organization’s board are worth billions of dollars and the amounts that they send to Greece do not justify the above expenses.

Looks like the organization could use a real spiritual advisor to help assist them as they conduct their business affairs.