OLD article but still
Onassis heir locked in fight for $1bn family foundation
By Hugh Davies (Filed: 06/04/2005)
Athina Onassis, one of the world's richest women, is fighting for control of her family's billion-dollar assets. The granddaughter of Aristotle Onassis, the shipping tycoon, is locked in a struggle with his former lawyer, who now administers the family foundation. Athina, 20, who inherited £320 million on her 18th birthday, grew up in Switzerland, but she has now renewed her Greek passport as the first move in taking over the Alexander Onassis Foundation, named after her uncle, who died in an air crash. Control of the fund would give her the power to make tens of millions of pounds worth of charitable donations and guarantee her a major role in Greek society.
But its current head, Stelio Papadimitriou, one of her grand-father's closest advisers, was scathing about her qualifications to do so.
He told Vanity Fair: "This is the most prominent foundation in Greece. We are not going to turn it over to someone who has no connection with our culture, our religion, our language, or our shared experiences, and who never went to college."
He insisted that "there's nothing we would want more" than to have a descendant of Onassis become foundation leader.
"But Athina's qualifications for the job are nil. She can do whatever she wants with what she inherited from her mother, but not with Onassis's legacy to the Greek people in memory of Alexander."
The foundation's assets are estimated to have grown to more than $1 billion. Recent expenditure includes £43 million on a state-of-the-art centre for heart surgery in Athens, and another £43 million on an arts centre.
Alexis Mantheakis, an Onassis family friend and lawyer, said: "There is absolutely nothing in the charter of the foundation that specifies 'Greekness' as a requirement. She has a right as the heir to be president of the foundation."
Her fiancé, Alvaro Neto, 32, the son of a Brazilian insurance executive, is reportedly encouraging her to stake a claim to her Greek inheritance as she approaches her 21st birthday.
Athina has demonstrated her resilience in similar battles. Her father, Thierry Roussel, made repeated claims on her money but she eventually settled with him, handing over a reported £53 million in cash and property in final settlement.
It left intact some of her most valuable assets, such as the Aegean island of Skorpios, including the "pink" villa where Jackie Onassis was once snapped sunbathing in the nude, all said to be worth, with three outlying islands, more than £107 million.
Properties include apartments on the Avenue Foch in Paris, villas in St Moritz, Marbella and Gingins, near Geneva, a home in Mayfair, a compound in Ibiza that features eight swimming pools and a waterfall, and real estate on the Greek island of Chios.
Now, in an attempt to re-establish her ties with Greece, Athina has joined an Athenian equestrian club called Avlona in the hope of riding in international competitions, including the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
She is accompanied every-where by 6ft 2in Mr Neto, known as Doda, whom she met after moving to Brussels from her home in Geneva when she was 17 to pursue her passion for riding. They were introduced at a school, run by Nelson Pessoa a Brazilian equestrian, and are due to marry in December.
Neto is a Brazilian Olympic show jumper whose team won bronze medals in Sydney in 2000. Athina reportedly paid £3 million for a home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she plans to wed. Konstantinous Kotronakis, the honorary Greek consul, told Vanity Fair that the couple had asked him to be best man.
Mr Kotronakis said: "Doda's been a strong influence on Athina and a very positive one, in my opinion. He's the one who urged her to take control of her own financial affairs. "He told her, 'Onassis was a symbol of everything Greek. How can you turn your back on such a heritage?' "
Athina speaks Swedish, French and English but hardly any Greek.
I hope Doda is a good & sweet to her as he seems in the pictures. They appear to be deeply in love. Maybe it's somewhat natural if he takes the stronger hand in their decisions, as he is slightly more than a decade older, isn't he? He has that much more advantage of her in terms of know-how, at least in equestrian field, where he is so successful. When it comes to training for the olympics, anyway, he must be the teacher and she must be the learner, because he has been there many times.
Alex looks. He seems like, "Huh? What? The Onassis chick?" 
Beautiful picture, happy woman. Makes me smile.
