A lavish reception and conference, focusing on economic development in the Mediterranean region was scheduled to take place in Athens this month, hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative. The event was canceled because of what Politico described as “concerns about damaging Hillary Clinton’s campaign by collaborating with a Greek government that is increasingly close to Russia’s combative president Vladimir Putin.”
The conference was to be paid for and sponsored by Clinton-ally and close friend Gianna Angelopoulos Daskalakis, a former member of Greek parliament and head organizer of the successful Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
Bill Clinton did not want to cancel the meeting, the sources said. They said the foundation had already booked a hotel and secured more than $1 million in funding from former Greek parliamentarian Gianna Angelopoulos, a major foundation donor who is friendly with the former president.
This is the latest in a series of sensitive matters touching the Clinton family’s philanthropic initiatives via the Clinton Global Initiative and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, including several high profile donors withholding contributions and increased scrutiny on foreign donations to the philanthropic foundation.
Clinton Foundation officials disputed in the Politico story that concerns about the Greek government played any role in the cancellation of CGI Athens, and the cancellation didn’t seem to bother Mrs. Angelopoulou-Daskalak, the wife of a billionaire shipping and steel magnate Theodoros Angelopoulos who has donated as much as $10 million through personal and foundation accounts
According to Politico, she is in talks about how to redirect her generous contribution to the canceled Athens meeting to other programs.
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Greg I am holding an article from April 18 in Parapolitika that discusses the cancellation in detail, probably where Politico got its information for their earlier report. Sort of old news here in Athens.
As an officer of Democrats Abroad Greece, we of course have to watch the activities of these unofficial bridge-builders. Nobody I know in Democrats Abroad Greece is very enthusiastic with the fact that CGI opted to partner with such a staunch pillar of the old Greek system, either, but we understand the desire to follow the cash flow; we would have thought alternative groups in Greek society might be somewhat closer to the message the CGI says it is projecting abroad.