Significant Greek media coverage has been directed towards monk Pimenas Talantzis lately, who is accused of attempting to acquire land belonging to a Greek woman from Melbourne.
A.K. (who would like to keep her identity secret), the alleged victim of ‘Father’ Pimenas, speaks out about the organised fraud:
“I have lived in the monastery he belonged to, in Paiania Attica, and I have witnessed a lot of things … I have to mention that he tried to steal my house in myriad ways under the pretext of building up a shelter for the poor. He even pretended to have been appointed as a proxy, by producing a fake document, aiming to misappropriate the block of land next to a house I sold him.
I was fortunate enough to become aware of this and confront him through my lawyer. Nothing seems too much, when talking about this man. A monk, who used to live in the same monastery with him but eventually left, confided in me that he was forced to witness the false proxy declaration after being beaten by monk Pimenas.”
The woman, who is a permanent resident of Melbourne, initially sold the monk a house in Chalandri Athens, for 80,000€. A.K. claims that after the completion of the transaction for the house, the monk tried to acquire the adjoining block of land from her.
He started to trespass on the block by planting roses and other flowers. After a while he even placed a ladder on it to ease his access onto the property next door.
The owner claims that ‘Father’ Pimenas was acting in this way, presuming that she would not be able to learn about his misconduct, since she was in Australia. A.K. however became aware of the trespassing and asked for legal advice in order to stop his invasion.
Legal action taken on behalf of A.K. prompted a Public Prosecutor’s order, whereby the monk was expelled from the block of land – Monk Pimenas is yet to comply with the court order.
Maria Grigoropoulou, the solicitor representing the owner, stated they had to remove his belongings from her client’s premises.
In the meantime, Greek society and clergy have been shocked after the Greek tabloid Espresso published pornographic images of monk Pimenas Talantzis.
His eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki referred to Pimenas Talantzis as someone who is tormenting and scandalising our faith and erases every sense of respect to our Church.