At an early stage, we started with identifying all Greek media (television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines and websites) in order to research their ownership status. However, as we were also interested in recording the other business activities of their owners, it quickly became clear that the volume of research was unmanageable.

Thus, we decided to focus on the largest groups (in terms of revenue and broad scope of activities) only − just researching the other business activities of these companies required hundreds of working hours and resources that we often did not have at our disposal.

This database is not exhaustive. We aspire to continue to update the database and include the business activities of most of the media owners.

To locate the companies behind the assets (for example: the company ownership behind a TV channel), and identify their shareholdings, we used various methods.

For companies:

In some cases, it was possible to locate the company from the official websites of the media, either from the “About” or “Company Profile” sections, or from the texts in the Terms of Use.

It is noted that until recently, websites were not obligated to publish the identity of the website and in particular the name, the distinguishing title, the title, the registered office of the company, its legal entity, the tax number and relevant tax office, its contact information (postal address, telephone number, email address, the names of the owner, legal representative, director, editorial director, administrator and beneficiary of the domain name).

The Registry of Online Media began its operation in March 2023, after the abolition of the existing Registry which had been established in 2017. Websites began to register en masse in 2024. Our investigation was completed in early 2024.

Websites had an incentive to sign up, because only officially registered websites are entitled to receive state advertising or join state funding programs which support the press.

In other cases, we gathered information from financial and news sites, which we then cross-checked through independent research.

For shareholder structure:

The most difficult part of the research was to identify the composition of a company's ownership.

We had to read thousands of documents, the majority of which we found in the business registries of Greece, other European countries, but also all over the globe. We searched for information in, among others, business registries in Cyprus, Norway, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Romania, and the United Arab Emirates.

Many times, we came across court decisions or documents from Securities and Exchange Commissions, which revealed shareholders and beneficiaries whose registers were not accessible.

The documents we read included company articles of association, financial statements, and other announcements regarding corporate changes.

This was also the most time-consuming part of the research, as we faced this common phenomenon:

• company X appears as a shareholder of company Y (instead of an actual person),
• company Y appears as a shareholder of company Z,
• company Z is a shareholder of another company, etc.

The example of ALPHA

The TV channel Alpha is owned by the company Alpha Satellite Television, SA. Shareholders of the company are: Mediamax Holdings Limited 25%, Nevine Holdings Limited 50% and Martikorio Limited 25%.

In turn, Mediamax Holdings Limited is 100% owned by Motor Oil (HELLAS) Corinth Refineries SA. It may be a known fact that Motor Oil is owned by the Vardinogiannis family, but for our purposes, it is important to be able to prove it.

Thus, Motor Oil belongs to Petroventure Holdings Limited (40%), Motor Oil Holdings Ltd (0.97%) and other shareholders (56.77%). Petroventure Holdings Limited is, in turn, owned by Motor Oil Holdings Ltd. And Motor Oil Holdings Ltd is owned by:

• MOTOR OIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED 56.2%
• MOLPIGHIA LTD 13.8%
• AIAS VARDINOGIANNIS 9.2%
• NICHOLAS VARDINOGIANNIS 9.2%
• PAVLOS VARDINOGIANNIS 8%
• CHARMPLUS TRADING LIMITED 3.7%

So there’s no question as to who has the largest stake (56.2%), MOTOR OIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED belongs to:

• GEORGIOS V. VARDINOGIANNIS 32.7%
• IOANNIS V. VARDINOGIANNIS 32.7%
• NICHOLAOS B. VARDINOGIANNIS 19.6%
• SFAX OIL LTD (Pavlos N. Vardinogiannis) 10.3%
• CHRISTIANNA V. VARDINOGIANNI 4.7%.

With the above, we proved that the 25% of Alpha Satellite Television SA owned by Mediamax Holdings Limited has all of the above as real beneficiaries.

Furthermore, 50% of Alpha Satellite Television SA is owned by Nevine Holdings Limited, which is 50% owned by Mediamax Holdings Limited (which we said is of Vardinogiannis interest) and 50% by Primos Media Sarl (reports link it to Serbian businessman Dragan Šolak). It is interesting that, while under normal circumstances the National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) is aware of the shareholder structure of the television stations, and although these changes have occurred in 2022, currently in the NCRTV file, Alpha’s shareholder structure has not been updated.

Finally, the remaining 25% belongs to the Cypriot company Martikorio Limited which, according to the data, has common persons on the Board of Directors with Primos Media. This shows that the Vardinogiannis family has joint control of Alpha with the owners of Primos Media and Martikorio Limited.

Investigating shell and offshore companies

The above phenomenon can be characterized as the “Matryoshka doll phenomenon”, as one would have to uncover successive layers of a stack of companies in order to finally discover the one we call the real beneficiary.

We were aware from the beginning of the investigation that in some cases it would be impossible to reach the beneficiary owner, as many companies are based in countries where such information is not accessible, such as the Marshall Islands, Liberia or Panama.

However, we managed to gain access to the files of a limited number of offshore companies with the help of the international research network OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) and foreign colleagues, for whose contribution we are grateful.

Proof vs "indications" of ownership or control

Finally, the database includes a small number of companies for which we do not have the official document of their shareholder structure.

We connect these specific companies with groups and businessmen when at least two of the following three indicators are present:

1. The company has on the Board of Directors natural persons in common with other companies of interests of the same businessman,
2. The company has the same address as other companies of interests of the same businessman,
3. The company has the same phone number as other companies of interests of the same businessman.

We highlight these cases in the section “information”, as either ownership percentages are not reported or the person shown as a shareholder does not have the same name as the businessman we are researching. For example, in the case of Victor Restis, many companies are in the name of his close associates such as Konstantinos Zafeiropoulos and Pericles Giolias. These companies often share common addresses, board members or even telephone numbers. We register these cases as “companies of interest” of the individual businessman.

In a few cases, where some companies do not meet the above condition, the indication of ownership was found using journalistic sources.

The companies are divided into 14 categories that correspond to sectors of the economy and are registered according to their Activity Code Number. Although a company may be active in more than one industry, we kept the industry it declares as the main one in the official documents.

The sectors are not exhaustive but refer to the activity of the companies recorded in the survey. The media category includes: Newspapers, television stations, online media, magazines, radio stations, production/advertising companies and digital services companies.

The investigation began in November 2022 and was completed in April 2024. The findings of the investigation have been fact-checked by an independent journalist/fact checker.

Months before publication, we communicated our findings to the media groups under investigation, making them aware of the data we had gathered and providing them the opportunity to reply.

As of September 2024, out of a total of ten requests, only the DPG Digital Media group of Dimitris Giannakopoulos responded to us by sending additional information which we incorporated into our data.

The request we sent to Naftemporiki, owned by Dimitris Melissanidis, was answered by the head of the legal department of Aegean Shipping, which sent us repeated letters preventing us from publishing, citing the "all legal rights reserved" of her principals, Dimitris and Giorgos Melissanidis.

Regarding the business interests of Victor Restis, we sent our findings to the official email address of the TV station Nickelodeon. Pericles Giolias, publisher of Sportime, replied to us, clarifying that Victor Restis has nothing to do with Sportime newspaper. When we asked him in what capacity he was responding to our email, he told us that he is an employee of Victor Restis and that he manages his channels.

We received no response from the other groups, despite their assurances in telephone communications that they would consider our request.