It was the day the football club executive accused of libelling Evangelos Marinakis tried to get the case thrown out of court — producing a series of explosive new accusations involving match-fixing, bribery and a “vendetta” that, she said, left her fearing for her life.
Irini Karipidis, president and chief executive of Greek club Aris Thessaloniki, was arguing through her lawyers at the High Court in London that the UK was not the right place for Marinakis to sue her as, he claimed, the ringleader of a “smear campaign” aimed at damaging the reputation of the Nottingham Forest owner.
Karipidis is accused of secretly orchestrating a six-month anti-Marinakis campaign, suggesting he fixed matches, smuggled Russian oil and was involved in large-scale heroin transportation as the alleged leader of a criminal network known as ‘The System’.
Marinakis, who strenuously denies any wrongdoing, is suing for libel and conspiracy — the shipping tycoon is said to want £5million ($6.5m) in damages — and it quickly became clear, in the wood-panelled surroundings of courtroom number 14, that she was prepared to take on the man whose Greek club, Olympiacos, won the Europa Conference League last season.
Karipidis’ argument is that she should not be sued in the UK over these allegations and that, while they were demonstrably true, they also involved factual issues that were more closely related to other countries. She alleged:
- Her family were the victims of a vendetta, threatening their lives, after her brother, Theodoros, the owner of Aris, refused Marinakis’ demands to “fix” a match between the two clubs.
- An organised criminal by the name of Vassilis Roubetis worked for Marinakis in Greece as his ‘pistol/gun’ and by ‘eating’ people — ie, killing them.
- Marinakis openly bragged to her about serious criminality and “made no attempt to hide the fact he smuggles sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran”.
- Her motive for targeting Marinakis was to “deliver the truth to the people of Greece and elsewhere” and a “feeling of isolation and despair”, exacerbated by him allegedly smearing her family through his Greek media empire.
- She believed there was “substantial truth” that Marinakis “was the arranger behind the Noor One drugs trafficking case” relating to the discovery in 2014 of 2.1 tonnes of heroin on one of his ships.
- Karipidis was so “scared” for her own safety that she wanted to deter Marinakis from more attacks by bringing the former world boxing champion Floyd Mayweather into Aris as an investor.
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Karipidis’ most spectacular allegations centred on the man who she used to consider a family friend and business ally.
“The more my brother and I got to know him (Marinakis), the more we believed the adverse and negative media reporting about his actions,” she wrote in a 13-page witness statement.
“My brother in particular, bore witness to his modus operandi in the context of football match-fixing, his openly bragging that he was an oil smuggler and international sanctions breacher, and his intimidation of anyone who crossed him, from football referees making adverse decisions against Olympiacos to the intimidation of business rivals.”
It led to a spectacular fallout that, according to Karipidis, was sparked by a 2-2 draw between Olympiacos and Aris towards the end of the 2022-23 season.
“In the days leading up to the match, Marinakis had been insistently asking and pushing (Aris owner) Theodoros to ‘fix’ the game in Olympiacos’ favour,” her statement alleged, adding that the same happened in the first game of the season.
“Mr Marinakis was very upset and was demanding the game to be won (by Olympiacos) at all costs — as their victory would ensure his claim to the end-of-year championship. Theodoros was very upfront and clear with him that all the games would be played normally and may the best man win.
“On matchday, Olympiacos were leading 2-0 when Aris drew level to 2-2. At this point, Marinakis stormed down to Theodoros, threatening him and telling him that he doesn’t care whether Theodoros has scored an own goal, but that he would not leave the field alive if he lost this game.
“At the end of the game, Marinakis returned to verbally assault Theodoros, telling him, ‘You are finished’, and ‘I will destroy you, I will eliminate you from Greece and from football’.
“Coming off the pitch, my brother was approached by Vassilis Roubetis, Marinakis’ right-hand man, and an organised criminal (now deceased) who had a role with Olympiacos and Marinakis’ team.
“Roubetis told him the following: ‘I have orders from Marinakis to make you disappear; you won’t have a place to hide; I’ll blow you up in the Porsche you have outside with the sevens’ — meaning the licence plate number of my brother’s car, which is 7777′. I will burn your office, you can’t fathom what we can do to you, we’ll make you and your family disappear, you’ll be on your knees begging for your life.’
“At which point Roubetis tried to hit Theodoros but other people got in between and allowed Theodoros to escape into the tunnel and the Aris dressing room.
“The next morning, Theodoros received a phone call from (Ioannis) Vrentzos, apparently on the orders of Marinakis, to tell him again that my brother is finished with football, that our nightmares have just begun, and that Marinakis will do everything to finish us professionally and from all our other business activities.”
Vrentzos is a Forest and Olympiacos director who previously worked at the City Ground as the club’s chief executive and is still prominently involved with their high-level dealings. He is now based in Athens, operating on behalf of both clubs.
Aris celebrate a goal against PAOK in May 2024. The team are top of the Greek Super League (Konstantinos Tsakalidis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A few weeks later, the two sides met again in Thessaloniki and Aris won 2-1. Olympiacos finished third in the league, with AEK Athens winning the title.
“From that day on, he (Marinakis) thought were responsible for him losing the championship,” wrote Karipidis. “He started to threaten me and my family in every possible way.
“Roubetis shared in discussions with my brother that he was his (Marinakis’) ‘pistol/gun’, the man who is responsible for ‘eating’ people — ie, killing them — and cleaning up all Marinakis’ dirty work. All this was done to intimidate my brother and I, by implying that Mr Marinakis is surrounded by dangerous men who would do anything for him and the team.”
Karipidis claimed she started “receiving threatening messages from various criminals that Marinakis was looking to harm us”, resulting in her family increasing their personal security measures. A security guard at her house reported two hooded men were circling the house. Graffiti was daubed on their walls and there was an arson attack at her offices.
“In October 2023, as I was taking my two-year-old son to kindergarten, I was followed by two motorbikes that sandwiched me at the traffic lights. Motioning to lower my window, one said they knew everything about me and that I would see what would follow next.
“The motorcyclist threatened me and my child and stated they had been sent from Piraeus (Marinakis’ home town), which left no doubt in my mind that this intimidation was brought about by Mr Marinakis. I collapsed with fear.
“It was at this stage that I realised how ruthless he can be and that he was bullying and threatening us because he was afraid of how difficult it would be to win the championship against us.
“To achieve his goal, he would go so far as to threaten our lives and the lives of our children, and who knows what else he is capable of doing?”
Irini Karipidis arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday (Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images)
According to Karipidis’ statement, Marinakis had previously offered her brother a €100,000 (£84,000; $109,000) bribe when they owned Veria, another Greek club. Veria players had been called to give evidence over match-fixing allegations from a game against Olympiacos in 2013. Marinakis, she said, wanted her brother to “interfere with the testimony” and made this bribe in the presence of his lawyer.
Marinakis insists this is all untrue. He also says he did not know Roubetis other than him having been an Olympiacos fan. Vrentzos strongly denies the claims against him.
Marinakis, who chose not to attend court, believes Karipidis is deliberately using the case, which has drawn many journalists, to smear him again, knowing her comments will be widely reported through the international media. He and his legal team say her allegations have little relevance to the case.
Karipidis went on to make several allegations against Marinakis’ son, alleging that Miltiadis had seen her brother in the street in March this year and “threatened him with his five bodyguards, verbally abused him and then spat at him”.
In July, she said, Miltiadis and his bodyguards “issued verbal threats to our own security team” outside an event arranged by the Greek Super League. The claims have been denied on behalf of Miltiades, who is prominently involved with Forest and Olympiacos.
What cannot be disputed by either party is that the relationship between the Marinakis and Karipidis families imploded spectacularly in 2023.
As The Athletic revealed yesterday, Marinakis is suing Karipidis and Ari Harow, the former chief of state for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for allegedly waging a six-month campaign to discredit him using “false and defamatory” statements.
Harow denies any involvement and he, like Karipidis, is seeking to have the libel action against him thrown out. He says he has been unfairly brought into a dispute between two warring Greek families.
Marinakis’ case is that they plotted together and commissioned a Texas-based marketing agency, Harris Media, to set up an anti-Marinakis website, a Twitter page and a YouTube channel, as well as organising for a mobile van billboard to be driven through the streets of Nottingham on two matchdays. Harow says he “was purely the introducer (between Karipidis and Harris Media) and took no active role”.
In a written statement presented to the court, Marinakis said he was so worried “for my safety and that of my family” that he felt compelled to stay away from an FA Cup tie at home to Blackpool in January.
In the High Court, it was the first time Karipidis made it public why she believed her accusations about Marinakis were true. Within her statement, she alleged that she had heard Marinakis openly referring to his criminality and, at times, witnessed it herself.
“In my experience, Mr Marinakis has made no attempt to hide the fact he smuggles sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran, through the UAE and other countries, using his fleet of oil tankers, many of which he bought from Russia when the sanctions were imposed,” she wrote. “He used to openly brag to Theodoros, on more than one occasion, that he was an oil smuggler.”
Marinakis, who bought Forest in 2017, says his dealings have been entirely legal and that it has caused him “enormous anxiety” to be depicted as the leader of a criminal network.
Marinakis holds the Europa Conference League trophy after Olympiacos beat Fiorentina in the final in May (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Of the Noor One case, Karipidis alleged in her statement that she and her brother were present when Marinakis invited a judge to his house and offered a bribe to make sure he was not prosecuted for heroin smuggling. The judge’s son was the public prosecutor, she said, and Marinakis wanted the case against him to be “quietly dropped” within two months.
If his son did this, including a public declaration that there was absolutely no evidence, Marinakis allegedly offered to pay him €200,000.
“The judge told him he could not interfere with the administration of justice and reminded Mr Marinakis that attempting to bribe an officer of the court was a serious offence,” said Karipidis. “Mr Marinakis became very angry and aggressive and started threatening the judge that he would kill him and every member of his family if his son did not do as he was told.
“He ran at the judge and grabbed him forcefully round the throat and started to throttle him, shouting that he would kill him. I felt that it was only the intervention of Theodoros that prevented any lasting or serious injury to the judge. The judge was crying, and clearly in shock after the attack.”
Marinakis’ lawyers rejected her claims, saying “none of this has been properly particularised or substantiated” and describing it as “just a mass of material designed to further smear the claimant without any substance”.
They maintain the case should go ahead in the UK, as the alleged libel took place here, and they object to Karipidis turning the hearing into a “mini-trial” of the merits of her allegations.
She also claimed in her statement that, while they were friends, she had tried to challenge him about his criminal behaviour, including his alleged reaction to losing a 2022 court case against another shipowner, Kriton Lendoudis.
Marinakis, she alleged, had responded to that defeat by calling a media publisher and close friend, to his office, as well as Vrentzos, and “dictated to them what to write against the shipowner. He instructed them to mail it to all the authorities and the ministries so he could destroy him (Lendoudis) financially”.
She continued: “I remember he was so mad that he wanted to send some thugs to beat up Lendoudis in a restaurant in Psychico, in Athens, where he frequented with his family. I got very upset and started telling him that he was taking it too far and that this wasn’t right and to calm down.
“After an hour, (the publisher) came back with the complaint against Lendoudis, printed out in several copies, and when I asked him how he could have procured it so quickly, he replied that they have done this so many times now for anyone who goes against Mr Marinakis’ interests and that they even have a whole system in place to get whatever they need.”
Eventually, she claims, the same happened to her own family, leading to reports in the Marinakis-operated newspapers and TV stations that “we were being audited, that we issued fictitious invoice and dealing in ‘black money’ while he was sending letters to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the tax authorities, the money laundering authority, and the financial police”.
He had used the same tactics, she alleged, in the “bribery of public officials and ministers, as well as fixing professional football games, both in Greece and overseas”.
She continued: “He liked to brag about all of this and even talked openly on the phone because he considered himself untouchable due to his domination and control of the media in Greece. He thinks he is holding dirt on everyone and, if he doesn’t, he just gets a publication or has (his media friend) target them to get what he wants.”
Marinakis, Vrentzos and the publisher have strongly denied these claims.
It was revealed in Karipidis’ statement that she had started her own libel action in Greece in September 2023. She argues it will cover some of the same ground as the UK case, meaning the proceedings in London should be struck out. But Marinakis points out he is not being sued in that case.
Here, though, she was in the High Court as a defendant, watching proceedings from one of the middle benches as her legal team accepted she was involved in paying for the anti-Marinakis messages, posts and videos.
Karipidis and Harow had already been working together to bring Mayweather to Aris as a possible investor. Harow then introduced her to Harris Media, an agency that briefly worked with Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“The idea of an investor into Aris FC was to take away the pressure Mr Marinakis was causing me as president and CEO of the club,” she explained in her statement. “I saw that an international boxing champion such as Mr Mayweather would make Mr. Marinakis baulk and think again before attacking us, or making demands that Aris deliberately lose matches against Olympiacos.”
Mayweather fighting Manny Pacquiao in 2015 (Al Bello/Getty Images)
“I was the victim in all of this, not Mr Marinakis,” Karipidis’ statement read. “I was forced into this position by Mr Marinakis’ sustained campaign of intimidation and harassment against me and my family, which culminated in the ambush of me and my infant son by the two motorcyclists.
“I object to the term ‘smear campaign’. The quest was to deliver the truth about Mr Marinakis to the people of Greece and elsewhere, and the media operation to bring this about using the internet was about delivery of the truth.”
That prompted a scathing response from Marinakis’ barrister, David Sherborne, in court. “If this really was a quest to deliver the truth, why put together a sham ‘Nottingham Forest disgruntled fan account’, published in English, to English people, and drive a van around Nottingham? It is a lie.”
The legal team for Marinakis say he is the subject of “false, outrageous and defamatory allegations in furtherance of a broader, professional smear campaign instigated against him”. Marinakis, they say, has “answered all the claims in full, in evidence advanced on his behalf”.
The two camps will discover in the coming weeks if Karipidis and Harow have been successful with their application and, if not, a date will eventually be set for a full trial.
(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
