Quebecor World (fka QBRWF)

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Who is Socrates Kokalis?
American magazine "Forbs" published a list of 538 businessmen who possess more than $1 billion and gave Mr. Kokalis 421st place estimating his wealth to $1.6 billion


By Milorad Ivanovic

Greek investments on the Balkans can be described like an offensive combining political and business interests. Talking about the moves of Greek businessmen led by billionaire Socrates Kokalis, leader of Macedonian Patriotic Organization Metodi Dimov said: "The main difference between Greek and Bulgarian politics toward Macedonia is that Greeks plan one hundred years in advance while Bulgarians are focused on daily political problems."

The Greek billionaire has a unique attitude toward all Balkan states. According to Bulgarian media, Kokalis invested more than $3 billion in Balkan states during past several years. He bought big state-run companies, telecommunications, banks and lotteries. He has been investing money in Albania, Romania, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and is planning to inject more than $4 billion into Turkey.

During several past years, Romanian and Bulgarian newspapers were libeling Socrates Kokalis "the secret Balkan ruler". Who is in fact Socrates Kokalis?

American magazine "Forbs" published a list of 538 businessmen whose wealth surpasses $1 billion and gave Mr. Kokalis 421st place estimating his wealth to $1.6 billion.

Socrates Kokalis is happily married and has three children. He was born in Athens in 1939 in the family of an eminent Greek surgeon. Having participated in the resistance movement, Kokalis and his family fled Greece. They firstly came to Yugoslavia but they moved to Romania where his son Socrates attended a high school. Afterwards, he moved to Moscow where Socrates enrolled a university but he graduated from the faculty of physics and electrical engineering in East Berlin in 1963. He returned to Greece and in 1977 established "Intracom" company, which became the greatest manufacturer of telecommunication equipment and information systems in Greece. Several years ago, Greek magazine "Anti" wrote that Kokalis didn't achieve success thanks to his knowledge and skills but thanks to the help of secret services. Namely, the magazine wrote that documentation found in the archives of the East German secret service showed that Kokalis was their spy during the 60s and that he was sent to Greece in order to supply the communistic regime in Berlin with information from Greece. Kokalis has never denied this statement.

In several years, Kokalis's company became a Balkan miracle. Nowadays, "Intracom" makes turnover of 1.6 billion euros. Kokalis owns two other organizations "Intralot" and "Intrasoft" also as shares in "Panafon-Vodafone", "Unibrain", "Helsakom international" and HE&D. In March 2000, "Intrakom" entered a strategic agreement with the CISCI system. Last July, Kokalis bought Hungarian company "Fornax" and Conklin Corporation in the USA. His latest project was purchase of a telecommunication company in Georgia (the USA).