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| PANOS MITSIOPOULOS EXHONERATED! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Certain "third persons" provided the sports newspaper "ORA GIA SPOR" with serious allegations of embezzlement and other financial crimes that were supposedly committed by Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos, former President of the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation. The following article appeared in the above mentioned newspaper on Friday, February 2, 2007. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Victim of misinformation Mr. Panos Mitsiopoulos | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Imposed re-establishment: In an article published by of our newspaper, based on mistaken information, we had accepted that the chairman of the Baseball Federation, Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos had embezzled large sums of money and had committed various other economic irregularities. Thus, we unwittingly harmed the aforementioned man's honor and reputation. Today we return to this subject, so that we may restore more completely the truth. With our original article, we wronged Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos because as detailed in the court ordered investigations by the SDOE (Bureau of Investigation of Economic Crime), all the allegations were false and completely unfounded. Moreover, no financial irregularities were found, as per the details of the official investigator's report, copy of which was dispatched to us by him. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We consider Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos to be an upstanding person of exceptionally high morals, who never committed any illegal actions in his capacity as President of the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation (EFOM). To the contrary, he worked with exceptional results towards the promotion of the sport of Baseball in our country, but also in the successful organisation of Baseball in the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004. For his contribution and his service to the sport he was honored by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We once again wish to express our apologies to Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos for the unfortunate article we published in our "ORA GIA SPOR"; which was the product of mistaken information, emanating from third persons, whose unique aim was to harm the honor, the reputation and the prestige of the above-mentioned president. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| READ THIS ARTICLE IN ITS ORIGINAL TEXT IN GREEK | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Obviously, knowing full well of his innocence, Mr. Mitsiopoulos filed a lawsuit against the newspaper for defamation of character in which his lawyers demanded a full retraction (which they gave) and significant punitive damages. On the day of the trial, the publisher personally apologized and assured Mr. Mitsiopoulos that they had nothing personal against him, but rather that they were victimized by certain "third parties" who provided them with the allegations. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The court case was scheduled for the morning of February 2nd, 2007, which was the same day that the newspaper's apology was published. Two of those "third parties" were present at the court house and the specific journalist who wrote the original article identified them as being the persons who made the allegations to the newspaper. Mr. Mitsiopoulos accepted the journalist's and publisher's apologies and decided to withdraw his lawsuit against the newspaper. But, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to apologize to Mr. Mitsiopoulos the two "third parties" stood their ground displaying belligerence and audacity. Its too bad that they were not man enough to accept that they were wrong and to bow their heads and seek forgiveness. Apparently they prefer to go down in a "blazing flame of glory". Mr. Mitsiopoulos has every right to now seek punitive damages against them. Those were very serious allegations that won't be ignored, forgotten, or forgiven easily. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| As many already know, serious allegations of embezzlement and other crimes have been leveled at the former President of the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation, Mr. Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos. Mr. Mitsiopoulos has been accused of stealing very large amounts of money from the Federation and for falsifying official state documents so that American athletes could gain Greek citizenship in order that they compete as Greek baseball players for the Greek National Team during the Olympic Games. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rumors of these illegal acts spread throughout the Greek baseball community without limit. ;The amount of money supposedly embezzled by Mr. Mitsiopoulos was said to be over 2 million Euros. Three individuals were so convinced of his guilt; they filed official and signed complaints with the office of the District Attorney of Athens. Such crimes could not be ignored and the District Attorney immediately ordered investigations by the SDOE (Bureau of Investigation of Financial Crime) and by the Police Department. The resulting investigations found absolutely no proof of any missing funds, and no illegal acts pertaining to athletes who acquired Greek citizenship. Thus, the allegations were dismissed as unfounded and the case was filed. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Consequently, the persons who signed the formal complaint that instigated the official Police and SDOE investigations are also libel for defamation of character and unlawful accusations. Mr. Mitsiopoulos has every right to sue these persons as well, seeking significant punitive damages. If convicted, these persons may also face prison sentences since the State District Attorney may accuse them of unjustified allegations. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| All of this ugliness could possibly be completely avoided if certain individuals would simply swallow their egomaniacal pride and apologize to the man. Plain and simple. Don't wait for the court case to be heard. Go do it now! | ||||||||||||||||||||