HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Who is Socrates Kokalis?
American magazine "Forbs" published
a list of 538 businessmen who possess more than $1 billion and gave Mr. Kokalis
421st place estimating his wealth to $1.6 billion
By Milorad Ivanovic
Greek investments on the Balkans can be described like an offensive combining political and business interests. Talking about the moves of Greek businessmen led by billionaire Socrates Kokalis, leader of Macedonian Patriotic Organization Metodi Dimov said: "The main difference between Greek and Bulgarian politics toward Macedonia is that Greeks plan one hundred years in advance while Bulgarians are focused on daily political problems."
The Greek billionaire has a unique attitude toward all Balkan states. According to Bulgarian media, Kokalis invested more than $3 billion in Balkan states during past several years. He bought big state-run companies, telecommunications, banks and lotteries. He has been investing money in Albania, Romania, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and is planning to inject more than $4 billion into Turkey.
During several past years, Romanian and Bulgarian newspapers were libeling Socrates Kokalis "the secret Balkan ruler". Who is in fact Socrates Kokalis?
American magazine "Forbs" published a list of 538 businessmen whose wealth surpasses $1 billion and gave Mr. Kokalis 421st place estimating his wealth to $1.6 billion.
Socrates Kokalis is happily married and has three children. He was born in Athens in 1939 in the family of an eminent Greek surgeon. Having participated in the resistance movement, Kokalis and his family fled Greece. They firstly came to Yugoslavia but they moved to Romania where his son Socrates attended a high school. Afterwards, he moved to Moscow where Socrates enrolled a university but he graduated from the faculty of physics and electrical engineering in East Berlin in 1963. He returned to Greece and in 1977 established "Intracom" company, which became the greatest manufacturer of telecommunication equipment and information systems in Greece. Several years ago, Greek magazine "Anti" wrote that Kokalis didn't achieve success thanks to his knowledge and skills but thanks to the help of secret services. Namely, the magazine wrote that documentation found in the archives of the East German secret service showed that Kokalis was their spy during the 60s and that he was sent to Greece in order to supply the communistic regime in Berlin with information from Greece. Kokalis has never denied this statement.
In several years, Kokalis's company became a Balkan miracle. Nowadays, "Intracom" makes turnover of 1.6 billion euros. Kokalis owns two other organizations "Intralot" and "Intrasoft" also as shares in "Panafon-Vodafone", "Unibrain", "Helsakom international" and HE&D. In March 2000, "Intrakom" entered a strategic agreement with the CISCI system. Last July, Kokalis bought Hungarian company "Fornax" and Conklin Corporation in the USA. His latest project was purchase of a telecommunication company in Georgia (the USA).
Kokalis has a negative reputation in Bulgaria and local papers are writing about scandals, in which Kokalis is the main character. Socrates Kokalis has 35% shares of Greek state-run telecommunication network, called OTE. OTE and its Holland partner KPN signed a contract on the purchase of 51% of Bulgarian state-run telecommunication network called BTK. The contract obliges OTE to buy software and other technological systems from "Intracom". According to Bulgarian weekly "Capital", OTE made a series of absurd demands when signing the contract. It was finally signed thanks to the connections between Kokalis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Videnov. In order to improve his reputation in Bulgaria, Kokalis has recently taken a group of Bulgarian journalists to Greece trying to prove his good intentions but he has refused to give interviews.
Bulgarian journalists agreed that "Intracom" is a technological miracle, which employs several hundreds of young Greeks. Kokalis is planning to establish a private university to educate experts who will work in his companies all over the world. The average salary of an engineer in "Intracom" is between $50.000 and $60.000 a year. Kokalis's empire employs more than 7.000 people in 43 countries.
However, Romanian journalists publish more critical articles. Kokalis signed a contract with Romanian state lottery concerning introduction of new electronic lottery. According to the contract, Greeks would invest more than $100 million and introduce video-lottery and bring 10.000 electronic devices. "The new lottery system will bring huge profit to the Greek company while Romania won't benefit from the busyness at all. In this way, the foreign investor will evade taxes that are usually paid on the lottery," Romanian magazine "Journal national" writes.
There is another problem: OTE will buy 35% of Romanian state telecommunication system RomTelecom.
Kokalis is involved in many other scandals. The National Sport Fund of Russia (NSF) sued "Sectro" company owned by Kokalis. According to Greek paper "Katimerini", The NSF ordered from Kokalis's company the lottery equipment worth $63 and paid $15 million in advance. However, "Sectro" has never delivered the equipment. It moved the money to the account of an Irish company called "European Games". "Sectro" claims that it got a letter from the NSF instructing it to move $11.4 million to the accounts of three other companies but the NSF claims that the letter is a forgery.
In 1996, "Katimerini" revealed that Socrates Kokalis had several accounts in "Handels Bank" in Berlin, from which money was moved to six accounts in other foreign banks. The magazine discovered that the money was used for bribing the OTE high officials, who were in charge of tenders.
It seems that the accusations and complaints don't bother Kokalis, who has become interested in military industry. He is performing tasks concerning information technology for the NATO.
He signed a contract with Bulgaria on installing a special optic cable between Sofia and Thessaloniki, which would be used in military purposes. Kokalis and the former Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov signed an agreement on modernization of military radars. Several new radars, which can register all objects flying over Romania, Turkey and Gruzia, will be installed on the coast of the Black Sea.
In January, "Intrasoft" (a part of "Intracom") bought 20% of Turkish company "Gantek", which is perfecting weapons of the Turkish army. "Intracom" entered military business in Greece too. A contract signed with the government concerns improvement of 45 airplanes "Mirage 2000" of the Greek Air Forces and construction of electronic equipment for French missile called "Scalp". Moreover, "Intracom" is to make radar systems for European hunters of the fourth generation called "Euro fighters".
Last year, Kokalis signed a contract worth more than $120 million with "Rayton" company of Massachusetts on production of electronic equipment for American missiles called "Patriots".
In the meantime, "Intracom" signed a contract with the American electronic giant "Sisco system" on cooperation in southeast Europe. This contract will bring Kokalis $120 million by 2003. The two companies agreed to offer their telecommunication and Internet services to Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Moldavia and Yermenia.
Kokalis has an interesting role in education of young experts from the Balkans. Namely, Kokalis program has been functioning at the Harvard University in the USA for several years. Having completed the program, young experts become "policy makers" and contribute to the state's business moves on the Balkans. Namely, most of them get jobs in the government, big companies and consulting firms.
Kokalis Fund has close connections with the American "Rand" corporation, which is one of the main designers of American foreign policy. It is believed that the Vietnam War was a Rand's idea. Moreover, Steven Leraby, one of Rand's experts and advisor of the former American president Bill Clinton was one of the main hawks in NATO air raids on Yugoslavia.
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What
does Zoran Djindjic say? |
Talking about foreign investments in Yugoslavia, Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said for a Serb weekly: "We are planning to make a center of high technology in Belgrade. I talked to one of the most successful men in that area, Mr. Kokalis. He is one of the richest Greek businessmen and even has a fund at the Harvard University. He wants to invest in a center of high technology in Belgrade. We want Serbia to be a Balkan center of modern technologies. I primarily think of Internet and computer technology. We don't want Belgrade to export only veal and brandy to Europe but also new software programs and new computer technology."
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