“THEMA” uncovers new details and documents about the case involving Michalis Dardaneliotis and the non-profit organization Chain of Hope. The organization is under investigation by the Money Laundering Authority for fraud exceeding 800,000 euros. This information comes from a lawsuit filed three years ago in the Multi-Member Court of First Instance in Athens, which was adjudicated on January 15, 2024.
The lawsuit was filed by the legitimate heirs of the deceased R.T. against Chain of Hope, based in Mykonos. The lawsuit claims that the will presented by Dardaneliotis’s organization was fake, aimed at claiming a valuable estate that included an apartment in Kolonaki, gold coins, and cash from investment banking products.
The lawsuit details the life and relationship of 92-year-old R.T. with her heirs. She passed away in August 2019. According to the lawsuit, R.T. had a long and close friendship with the plaintiffs, making them her sole heirs through a handwritten will, which was declared valid by the Athens Court of Peace and a judicial expert.
The Multi-Member Court of First Instance in Athens has ruled that the will presented by Chain of Hope was fake.
The plaintiffs describe R.T. as a family member and their only grandmother after the death of their biological grandparents. They spent all family holidays and significant moments of their lives together.
In August 2019, worried about not hearing from R.T., the plaintiffs went to her Kolonaki home and found they could not open the door with the keys she had given them. They called the police, who found R.T. deceased on the floor with no signs of life. The police sealed the apartment according to the law. When the apartment was reopened a year later, it had been broken into and looted, with only R.T.’s documents stolen. The heirs filed a complaint, which is currently under investigation.
In the summer of 2021, the case took a new turn when Chain of Hope sent a legal notice to R.T.’s heirs, claiming to have inherited R.T.’s estate through a public will published nearly two years after her death. This will allegedly bequeathed almost all of R.T.’s estate to Chain of Hope.
During the trial, the court-appointed a forensic handwriting expert from the Greek Police’s Forensic Science Department. The expert concluded that the disputed signatures on the will were not made by R.T. but by an unknown individual who unsuccessfully attempted to mimic R.T.’s genuine signatures.
The plaintiffs also allege that witness testimonies raise serious questions about the relationship between R.T. and Chain of Hope’s representative, Michalis Dardaneliotis. They note that Dardaneliotis did not attend R.T.’s funeral and that no one in her circle had heard of this relationship. The will, made public five months before R.T.’s death, allegedly left over 1,000,000 euros to the honored parties.
Dardaneliotis claimed that the only funds received by his organization came from bequests, specifically from L.L., whom he claimed as a personal friend. However, the 625,000 euros mentioned entered the company’s accounts after the sale of L.L.’s bequest, which was the property left by L.L., who was the half-brother of the murdered actor Nikos Sergianopoulos.
The sale involved a property in Kastella, listed at 1.1 million euros in 2020, featuring a tower on a 345 sq.m. plot. The tower was classified as a preserved monument by a ministerial decision. Dardaneliotis was asked whether the sale caused disputes with L.L.’s relatives. He responded that there were no legal disputes with L.L.’s family and that he returned any shared property to them.
The heirs of L.L. stated they did not further investigate the will after consulting two handwriting experts who confirmed that the signatures matched. When asked about the use of the sale proceeds and the issue of R.T.’s will, Dardaneliotis did not respond.
On January 15, 2024, the Athens Multi-Member Court of First Instance ruled that Chain of Hope’s public will be invalid. The court determined that the disputed handwritten signatures on the will were not made by R.T. but by a third party attempting to forge her signatures. Thus, the will was declared fake.
Michalis Dardaneliotis, the legal representative of Chain of Hope, is now under judicial scrutiny. A July 31 directive from the Money Laundering Authority estimates that the misappropriated funds may exceed 800,000 euros, raising concerns about the fate of funds intended for social causes.
