'For a Donation of 3,000 Euros, Every Greek Can Buy Freedom'

Spiegel.de ^ | 06/29/2012

[DeaconBenjamin]

Greek shipping heir Peter Nomikos started a nonprofit to pay the country's debt.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Nomikos, your organization buys up Greek bonds and then forgives the debt. Are you serious?

Nomikos: I deal with distressed debt. Greece has a historical opportunity. The Greeks can buy back debt at very low prices and reduce the Greek debt burden with relatively little expenditure.

SPIEGEL: You ask your countrymen for donations. What do you tell them?

Nomikos: Each Greek owes around €25,000. So I tell my fellow citizens to make themselves debt-free. Greek government bonds with a nominal value of one euro trade for around 12 cents. For a donation of around €3,000, every Greek can buy his freedom.

SPIEGEL: How many bonds has your foundation already bought?

Nomikos: So far we have invested €273,000 and hold €2.2 million in Greek debt.

SPIEGEL: Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Greece's biggest football club Olympiakos Piräus, donated €168,590. How did you get him involved?

Nomikos: I asked if he would use our logo and message in communications for Olympiakos FC. He immediately said yes. Half of Greece supports Olympiakos. Then I asked him whether he wanted to buy the freedom of his players. He said: I'll also buy the freedom of my employees. So he paid for 55 people -- €3,065 each.

SPIEGEL: What is the reaction from the Greek government?

Nomikos: Many find our campaign encouraging. A private Greek citizen organizes other Greeks to address our biggest problem. We are taking initiative.

SPIEGEL: You established the foundation in Delaware. Why not in Greece?

Nomikos: In Greece, I couldn't be sure the money would remain untouched. Also, being a US charitable foundation means that American taxpayers can deduct any donation from their taxes. It is an incentive for the wealthy Greek diaspora in the US.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’m pretty sure we can raise enough money to send Barry, Michelle and their daughters back to Kenya and buy them a fancy hut or shanty. That’d be our version of this.

[RKBA Democrat]

Clever idea.

[Smokin' Joe]

Something like that has already been tried (Liberia).

[Pontiac]

If you are in to speculation it might be an idea to invest in Greek bonds. If this movement makes substantial inroads on the Greek debt, the value of Greek debt will improve and you can sell at a profit. To add to the enticement of this idea the Euro is trading at 79 cents to the Euro today.

But the down side seems more likely to me that the Greeks will default on their debit and you loose everything.

[KarlInOhio]

'For a Donation of 3,000 Euros, Every Greek Can Buy Freedom'

However since the Greek government continues to overspend its income they are still selling its people into debt slavery.

[SeminoleCounty]

This sounds like a scam

Easier to demonstrate to the banks this thing called “risk”....what a bank takes when making a loan. If the loan goes bad, you cannot run to the govt to bail you out with higher taxes.

When the EU nations started going socialist for the banks...thats when all their problems started