Jay Malkoun: Ex-bikie boss had likely link to Togas family’s business in Athens
A likely link has emerged between former Comancheros bikie boss Jay Malkoun — who was seriously injured in a car bomb — and a business that was firebombed in the Greek capital a year ago.
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A likely link has emerged between Australian bikie boss Amad “Jay’’ Malkoun and a business that was firebombed in the Greek capital a year ago.
The 56-year-old Malkoun was seriously injured on Friday when his Mercedes ignited after being fitted with an improvised explosive device in the plush Athens seaside suburb of Glyfada.
On Sunday local time, the former president of the Victorian chapter of the Comancheros bikie gang was spirited away under police guard from the nearby Asklipeio General Hospital where he had been undergoing surgery for severe injuries to his legs and feet.
News Corp understands Malkoun has been living in a penthouse flat in a three-storey block of apartments in Glyfada that is also home to the Togas family, which runs up-market fabric shops in seven countries including Greece, Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates.
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The Togas textile store in Glyfada was firebombed in February 2018. The store is located on Vouliagmenis Avenue, the same street where just a few hundred metres away, Malkoun was blown up as he got into his car after leaving the Mega Gym.
Another Australian, gangster John Macris, 46, who was shot dead outside his home in the neighbouring suburb of Voula last October, was also a regular at the Mega Gym, and the new security company he was setting up was headquartered on Vouliagmenis Avenue.
Greek media reported that the attack on the Togas store may have been an attempt to intimidate the wealthy family into paying extortion money.
News Corp is not suggesting the Malkoun was involved in that possible extortion attempt or in Macris’ death.
The link to the Togas family is yet another baffling potential connection in the Malkoun saga.
The former bikie gang leader had no apparent history with Macris, a Greek-Australian, back in Australia, yet he ended up living in same district of Athens, worked out in the same gym, and dined in the same fish restaurant.
The fact Malkoun was the victim of a bomb attack and was living in the same block as a family whose store was firebombed a year ago provided another striking coincidence.
He also happened to be living in Dubai in 2014 when the Togas company opened a store there. And in 2015 he was reported to have set up a chapter of the Comanchero bikies in Russia, where Togas has a number of stores.
It is not clear if he is a friend of the Togas family or if he ended up living in their apartment block by chance. News Corp Australia is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the Togas family’s behalf.
The building where Malkoun lives faces the Glyfada golf course and he enjoyed views of the sea from his top floor flat, which also overlooked the complex’s small garden, studded with a series of poles bearing CCTV cameras.
The names Elias and Anastasia Togas were on doorbells on the street entrance. A man named Elias Togas is the CEO of the Togas firm. He did not respond when News Corp attempted to contact him.
Anastasia Togas did answer the phone to News Corp, but she refused to comment when asked about Malkoun, who served more than a decade in jail for heroin trafficking.
Most neighbours questioned said that they had not seen Malkoun but several said they had often seen Mercedes cars with foreign number plates, including one with plates from an Arab country, parked outside the house.
Malkoun’s white Mercedes had Australian plates, and he held a driver’s licence from the United Arab Emirates.
The Egyptian owner of a grocery store near the apartment building told News Corp he had twice served Malkoun over the past year.
Once he had remarked on the large tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his arm, and Malkoun, who is of Lebanese origin, pointed to it and said “Al-Adhra”, the Arabic for the Virgin.
The shopkeeper then spoke to him in Arabic but quickly realised that Malkoun, who left Melbourne in 2013 for Dubai and moved to Greece about two years ago, did not understand, he said.
Sources at the Asklipeio General Hospital, where Malkoun was being treated since the attack on Friday, said that he had been taken to an undisclosed location under police escort after a third round of surgery on Sunday morning.
He was overheard on Friday asking after his three young children and was reassured by a Greek man and woman who were visiting that they would go and pick them up and look after them.
Uniformed police came on Friday to interview him about the attack, for which no arrests have yet been made, the hospital sources said.
It was unclear whether his wife Samantha was currently in Athens. She does not appear to have visited him in hospital.
Originally published as Jay Malkoun: Ex-bikie boss had likely link to Togas family’s business in Athens
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