Murdered Sydney gangster John Macris’ bizarre legal battle and a lost Rolex
A bizarre long running legal battle between John Macris and local police involving a $48,000 Rolex watch and a shoe has emerged in the wake of the Australian gangster’s assassination.
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A bizarre long running legal battle between John Macris and local police involving a $48,000 Rolex watch and a shoe has emerged in the wake of the Australian gangster’s assassination.
As Athens police pick through Macris’s life, trying to determine why someone wanted the 46-year-old dead, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal he was due to face court over the luxury watch the day after he was murdered.
The seven years of friction with police has only added more questions to the investigation into his life in Athens before he was gunned down outside his home on October 31.
The saga started in 2011 when Macris accused a cleaner at a hotel in Piraeus, close to his home in Voula, of stealing the Rolex from his room.
Records show he then went back to police three days later and said he had found the watch, valued at €30,000, or more than $48,000, in a shoe.
Police charged Macris with making a false report and the case dragged on for years.
It is not known why Athens police continued to pursue the charge until his death put a stop to the case.
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The Sunday Telegraph can also confirm Macris’s Ukrainian-Greek beauty queen widow Viktoria Karida has hired a celebrity lawyer to ensure her two young children receive their inheritance from his estate.
The Ukrainian-Greek beauty queen also released a statement to a Greek television station saying he was an “angel” and the “kindest, sweetest” man.
Celebrity lawyer Nikos Agapinos acknowledged he had been hired by Ms Karida to assist her in the wake of her husband’s death.
“The case is now under the police, the police are looking for (those responsible),’’ he said. “They haven’t come to a conclusion.”
Mr Agapinos said he was working to ensure Ms Karida’s children — Achilles and Alexandra — received the appropriate inheritance from their father.
“I am assisting the children with the inheritance. There is also another boy from an older marriage, so there are some little things to do,” he said.
Macris, who left Sydney in 2009, has a teenage son from an earlier relationship living in Australia.
Mr Agapinos is also trying to stop Greek media from continuing to broadcast confronting CCTV footage of Macris’ execution, which was filmed on his own security cameras outside his door as he was about to get into his Smart car, and leaked to the media after it was given to police.
He said Ms Karida, who was spotted in the celebrity haunt Beluga in nearby Piraeus, Athens, in recent weeks, would not be talking to the media “at the moment”.
Earlier this month she wrote a letter to the Greek TV station Skai, saying her husband had been an “angel’’.
“I didn’t talk to anyone all this time, I only listened. I listened to the unbelievable things said about my man, my husband, the father of my children, and again I didn’t say anything,” she wrote. “Now, I want to tell you, that he was for me and he will always be the kindest man, the sweetest of all the people.
“He never bothered anyone. On the contrary, he was there for whoever needed him.
“I want to tell you how hard it is to lose the man of your life, your other half, the best man I met in my life. I love him so much.
“He was such a good man to everyone, with an open heart, smart, and dignified, he did many good things in this life.
“That’s what he’ll be remembered for forever. He’s my angel, I feel him next to me every minute and love him. This is the truth. I loved him so much.” She appeared to address her dead husband directly, saying: “You’re my man, my best friend, my everything.”
As well as enemies from Australia, police have been looking at how Macris’s security company, My Services, had won more than $7 million in Greek government contracts in 2018 alone.
My Services was awarded 54 contracts from government entities.
These were from universities, hospitals and ministerial departments. The single largest contract was for two years at the University of Athens, for which My Services was to be just paid over $5 million.
A limited liability company, My Services was previously known as JCB Security and Facility, before it underwent a name change in 2016.
JCB also held multiple government contracts. It was, according to Greek media reports, the subject of more than 200 complaints about its work practices, although it is not known if any of those complaints ever proceeded to inspection.
The Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry website indicates that both JCB, then My Services, were in the business of collecting non-hazardous garbage, selling security alarm systems, contracting, money transfers, providing bodyguards and other types of unspecified security services, cleaning the common areas in apartment buildings and providing pest control.
Shareholdings aren’t public in Greece but according to a leaked extract of the My Services register, John Macris was joint majority shareholder, with 35 per cent worth of stock $110,000.
Aristovoulos Spiliotopoulos held 20 per cent, worth about $63,000.
Mr Spiliotopoulos, a former minister in the Greek government, told the media after the register was leaked that he had only held the shares for 15 days and had no knowledge of Macris’ background.
Greek police would not comment on what inquiries, if any, they were making into Macris’ extensive business dealings as part of their homicide investigation.
And a former government minister was listed as a shareholder in the company, although he says he only held the shares for a period of 15 days and had no knowledge of Macris’s reputation as a gangster.
In a statement issued through the Greek Government’s international media department, the
Hellenic Police press office said: “Regarding the cases that are under preliminary investigation
(governed by the principle of absolute secrecy), we do not give interviews, nor do we provide any relevant data or information, and therefore we are unable to satisfy the journalist’s request”.
Karida had made a name for herself as a catwalk model before her marriage and she has ensured the case has received plenty of attention in the Greek media.
Macris was on his way to the opening of a new office of his company My Services about 8pm when he was executed by a gunman who shot him four times as he stepped into his car outside his home in the upscale suburb of Voula.
Macris lived in a large hilltop home with his family protected by video surveillance and locked roller-doors.
News Corp visited the home, where a woman claiming to be Ms Karida’s sister spoke on an
intercom, telling News Corp Ms Karida no longer lived at the address.
She said her sister had gone to live with her mother.
News Corp was not able to independently verify the claim, and neighbours declined to speak.
Macris also has a teenage son in Australia from an earlier relationship.
She had earlier told the Secret celebrity website she would not be leaving Greece, saying: “Why would I leave my home? I have nothing to fear.’’
Macris’ Smart car has also now been sold.
News Corp tracked down the car, which is being stored inside a mechanic’s garage called Smart Service in a nearby suburb of Faliro.
The garage owner Ioannis Tsardonis said the car had already been sold.
He said he had been called to pick it up but refused to answer any other questions.
Originally published as Murdered Sydney gangster John Macris’ bizarre legal battle and a lost Rolex
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