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Revelations of St. Demetrios, Queens

web_greek--525x368The New York Post, in its extensive article, Big fat Greek mess in the church of St. Demetrius in Queens, deals with the situation related to the once-proud Greek Orthodox church.

The church has been rocked by allegations of self-dealing, questioned insurance claims and missing cash.

Queens prosecutors are investigating if a sinner stole money meant for paintings of saints, given that the church has failed to pay $208,000 in city taxes, and a church lawyer once faced a record-breaking city ethics fine.

However, longtime parishioners blame the church management, including president Faye Pappas and former president Peter Hirakis.

Hirakis, 52, who lives in a $1.3 million house in Tony Old Westbury, LI, and was convicted of felony insurance fraud in 1991, is in charge of maintenance at St. Demetrios, and his firm, NYTAS, was chosen to repair the gym, the social hall floor and other damages the church claims it suffered during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

But longtime members say the church’s gym floor was worn before Irene and doubt if the storm had even damaged it. While Great American paid for the old floor to be removed, they question whether Hirakis just put a new floor on top of it. They also say a $40,000 payment to Hirakis, allegedly to rent another location while the gym was unusable, was bogus because the gym was closed for just days NY Post reports.

One of Hirakis’ companies received $564,450 from the Great American Insurance Co., according to a parishioner who saw the canceled checks. The church got another $100,000 from Great American.

The church has not paid a dime of the $208,589 it owes in back taxes after improperly getting a charitable exemption for property it rents to a discount store on Parsons Boulevard. It also owes $10,800 in building-code violations for the property.

Upset parishioners say they appealed to Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in America.

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