The head of a Greek non-governmental organisation is to stand trial over the alleged forgery of a 92-year-old woman’s will in a high-profile inheritance dispute involving an estate worth more than €1 million in Athens’ affluent Kolonaki district.

Seven years after the woman’s death, a legal battle that began as a dispute over her inheritance and developed into a complex case involving two wills, handwriting examinations and allegations of forgery is now heading to the Athens Three-Member Criminal Appeals Court, which hears serious criminal cases.

Under judicial ruling No. 3001/2026, issued by the Athens Council of Misdemeanour Judges, four people have been referred for trial: notary E.S., witnesses A.P. and Th.Z., and Michalis Dardaneliotis, head of the non-profit organisation Chain of Hope.

The council examined the prosecutor’s recommendation and evidence collected during the investigation at a hearing on 16 July 2026, before issuing its ruling on 24 July.

At the centre of the case is a public will dated 4 March 2019, which purported to designate Chain of Hope, a Mykonos-based non-profit organisation supporting cancer patients, as the elderly woman’s heir.

According to the judicial ruling, the organisation, formally known as the Chain of Hope for People with Neoplastic Diseases, is legally represented by Dardaneliotis.

The organisation’s history was initially linked to his personal life and his wife Chara’s battle with cancer. Dardaneliotis had appeared repeatedly in the media and on TV programmes to promote its charitable activities.

His name had previously attracted public attention when Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority began investigating the organisation’s management of funds and inheritances.

He was also linked to disputes involving the Kolonaki woman’s estate and the inheritance of the half-brother of late Greek actor Nikos Sergianopoulos, a separate matter that remains unresolved.

The criminal charges

The latest development is particularly significant because the disputed will has already been examined by Greece’s civil courts, which definitively established that it was not genuine.

The criminal proceedings will now determine whether the offences described in the indictment were committed and whether any of the four defendants bear criminal responsibility.

Dardaneliotis faces the most serious combination of charges, including instigating the felony of making a false official certification, instigating the forgery of a document and using a forged document.

According to the allegations, he persuaded an individual whose identity remains unknown to imitate the 92-year-old woman’s signature on the disputed will.

He is also accused of using the document by submitting it to the Athens Magistrates’ Court.

The judicial ruling further outlines his alleged involvement in the preparation of the public will.

The judges state that Dardaneliotis allegedly used persuasion and persistent pressure to induce his co-defendant, notary E.S., to make a false official certification.

The alleged purpose was to enable Chain of Hope, which he represented, to claim the elderly woman’s estate as her lawful heir.

Until now, the central question in the inheritance dispute had been whether the contested document genuinely reflected the woman’s final wishes.

The civil courts resolved that question by ruling that the will was forged.

The criminal court must now consider the conduct of those allegedly involved in producing and using the document.

All four defendants retain the presumption of innocence until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings and a final, irrevocable judgment.

The notary, E.S., faces a felony charge of issuing a false official certification with the intention of securing unlawful financial gain and causing corresponding financial loss.

According to the indictment, both the alleged benefit and the resulting damage exceeded €120,000.

The judicial document also examines what allegedly happened on 4 March 2019, when the disputed will was supposedly drawn up.

According to the prosecution, the notarial deed recorded that the notary had been summoned to the elderly woman’s apartment to prepare and execute her will.

E.S. allegedly certified that the witnesses were present inside the property and that the woman appeared before them, expressing her wish to make a public will and verbally declaring her final intentions.

These assertions are now central to the criminal case.

The two witnesses, A.P. and Th.Z., have been referred for trial on charges of aiding and abetting the felony of making a false official certification.

How the alleged inheritance fraud unfolded

The woman, identified by the initials R.T., died on 15 August 2019, aged 92.

She left behind an estate valued at more than €1 million, including an apartment in Kolonaki, bank deposits, gold sovereigns and other assets.

Although she had no relatives, she was surrounded by people who had been close to her for years and whom she regarded as family.

She had also made arrangements for the distribution of her estate after her death, depositing a sealed handwritten will with a notary.

However, an incident following her death marked the beginning of a prolonged legal dispute.

A breach of the seals on her apartment was reported, and personal documents were allegedly removed from the property.

At the time, the incident appeared to be one unexplained element in the aftermath of her death. Its potential significance became greater when a second will subsequently emerged.

Almost two years after the woman’s death, a document appeared naming Dardaneliotis’s Chain of Hope organisation as the beneficiary of almost her entire estate.

People who had known the woman closely immediately challenged the authenticity of the purported public will and took legal action.

The central question was whether she had actually signed the document.

Handwriting experts were called upon to examine the disputed signatures.

The case file reviewed by the Athens Council of Misdemeanour Judges included handwriting analysis reports prepared both during the civil litigation and following a judicial order.

The court-appointed handwriting examination concluded that the signatures had not been written by the elderly woman but by another individual attempting to imitate her handwriting.

On 15 January 2024, the Athens Multi-Member Court of First Instance upheld the legal heirs’ claim and ruled that the disputed will was forged.

The non-profit organisation appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeal dismissed its challenge and upheld the original judgment.

Although the civil courts had established that the will was not authentic, the ruling did not bring the affair to an end.

Instead, it raised further questions about who had forged the signature and under what circumstances the document had been presented as legally valid.

The subsequent criminal investigation resulted in judicial ruling No. 3001/2026.

Before deciding to refer the four defendants for trial, the council reviewed evidence from the main investigation and preliminary inquiry, witness testimony, documents in the case file and handwriting analysis reports.

One particularly striking detail is that the individual alleged to have imitated the woman’s signature has still not been identified.

Dardaneliotis is accused of having persuaded that unidentified person to carry out the forgery.

Bail conditions and outstanding arrest warrants

Seven years after the 92-year-old woman’s death, a single disputed signature remains at the heart of a case involving an estate worth more than €1 million.

The judicial council has also decided to maintain the restrictions previously imposed on the notary and Dardaneliotis while the criminal case proceeds.

E.S. remains subject to bail of €2,000 and must report once a month to the police station responsible for her area of residence.

Dardaneliotis is required to maintain bail of €3,000 and is likewise obliged to report to his local police station every month.

The position of the two witnesses is different.

The council has maintained the arrest warrants issued against A.P. and Th.Z.

The ruling also provides that, should they be arrested, they will be placed in pre-trial detention pending the final resolution of the case, subject to the maximum detention periods permitted under Greek law.

The proceedings will determine whether criminal responsibility can be established for the forged will, bringing the long-running inheritance dispute into a new and potentially decisive phase.