Dimitris Kontominas

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Dimitris Kontominas (Greek: Δημήτρης Κοντομηνάς); born 1939) is a Greek businessman who is active in insurance, television, cinema and retail trade. He has one daughter and two grandchildren.

Early life[]

He was born on June 3, 1939 in Athens. He studied at the American University of Beirut. Initially he worked as insurer in American Life (ALICO). In 1969, he cofounded with Alexander Tampoura the insurance company Interamerican.^[1] Interamerican now belongs to Eureko BV. Kontominas remained chairman until 2005.^[2]

Kontominas owns Prime Insurance and MyDirect insurers. He founded or acquired other companies, including:

• Interbank (later acquired and absorbed by Eurobank)
• Intertech^[3] (exclusive representative products Panasonic)
• Euroclinic Athens
• Novabank (in 2006 renamed Millennium Bank)
• InterJet – aircraft and helicopter fleet
• GreenFarm
• FC Aris
• Alpha TV and radio station Alpha 98.9 (66% held by January 2012, the German group RTL)
• Village Roadshow Greece theaters
• Athens/Thessaloniki Channel 9 and radio station Alpha 96.5 Radio in Thessaloniki

In 2012 Kontominas took back the shares of Alpha TV^[4] when RTL Group decided to exit. In 2015 Alpha TV was the number one Greek TV station.

Kontpminas is the president of DEMCO GROUP, one of Greece's largest investment holding companies. It has a diversified portfolio, with holdings in media, financial services, entertainment, IT and telecom, leisure and Entertainment and Food & Beverages. Within its companies' portfolio one can find Village Group (Cinema and films), Alpha TV and Alpha Radio, Intertech (Panasonic's exclusive representative in Greece), Prime Insurance, myDirect online insurance, Sportday newspaper and many more.^[5] For a little time in the early 2000s was owner of Aris F.C..

He declared "Great Protekdikos Archon of the Ecumenical Throne"^[6] from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and "Great Benefactor" from Metropolis of Chalcedon.Aris F.C.

He was arrested in 2014. According to the authorities approximately 200 million euros worth of loans were issued by the bank during the period in question to companies controlled by certain well-connected businessmen without guarantees, none of which have been repaid. The case is also linked to another financial scandal involving another 300 million worth of losses due to bad loans made to a property developer. The accused face charges including fraud, money laundering and complicity in malpractice. An extremely scandalous man, no one refers to the money he stole from Greeks living abroad while he was owner of Interamerican. The story hit the media in 2004 by a rivalry channel Alter owned by Nikos Kouris. The channel does not exist anymore and the Interamerican Scandal is nowhere to be mentioned.

References[]

Sources[]

• Biography of Dimitris Kontominas at asfalistis.gr
• Dimitris Kontominas profile on bloomberg.com
• Demco Group of Companies of Dimitris Kontominas