‘Nothing has happened to me’

It was late on the night of September 27, 2023, when David Sassoon and his team left the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), south of Athens. They were all exhausted – the preparations for that day had taken months – but Sassoon himself was completely satisfied. He had accomplished exactly what he had envisioned from the moment he arrived in Greece: organizing a conference with high-profile guests and prestigious speakers. That afternoon, he had been photographed beaming with the ambassadors of the US and Israel, alongside politicians and businesspeople, having successfully secured Mike Pompeo – the 70th US secretary of state and former CIA director – as the keynote speaker. Sassoon was confident that his plan – a series of investments in Greece and abroad – would immediately be set in motion. And indeed, at the dinner following the conference, he collected numerous business cards from eager potential investors.

The revelations

Two weeks later, a Kathimerini investigation revealed, for the first time, evidence suggesting that he was not who he claimed to be. He was neither a billionaire nor even an American Jew. According to court documents obtained by the newspaper, his real name was Khalid El Sheriff. Originally from Sudan, he had served prison time in both the US and the UK for a series of financial crimes.

He arrived in Greece in August 2020 and, over time, convinced several Greeks to invest their money with him. With these funds, he financed a lavish lifestyle. Initially, he rented an apartment in Voula, southern Athens, where he lived with his wife. Later, he secured an office on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, hired staff, and was constantly accompanied by a team of bodyguards. A week before the conference, he moved alone into a 400-square-meter luxury apartment on Rigillis Street in the heart of the capital. These elements made his story increasingly credible. The conference was the pinnacle of his scheme.

“Do you think that if there was even a shred of truth in your preposterous allegations, Pompeo would have accepted my invitation?” he replied when Kathimerini sent him questions. Sassoon then filed an injunction against the author of this article but never appeared in court for the hearing.

After the revelations about his true identity, Sassoon did not go into hiding. On the contrary, he personally called his associates, visibly distressed. “Someone is trying to trap me. I brought such an important figure to Greece without consulting the political establishment, and I’m paying a high price for it,” he claimed, implying that Pompeo’s invitation had made him enemies.

“We listened to this conspiracy theory rather skeptically,” recall two of his former associates, who wish to remain anonymous.

The conference had cost over half a million euros. While Pompeo had been paid (€225,000) – a prerequisite for his travel to Greece – most payments to collaborators and suppliers were still pending, including the fee for the agency that had booked Pompeo. His associates knew his bank accounts were empty, yet he did not seem worried.

“Before the conference, when we asked him about the unpaid invoices, he assured us that everything would be settled soon. He clearly hoped that his initial meetings would secure new funding.”

‘Huge misunderstanding’

Later, his excuse to those he owed money to was that his corporate accounts had been frozen – allegedly due to the media reports – but that it was only a matter of time before he resolved the “huge misunderstanding” with the authorities. For weeks, creditors heard the same justification.

One of them, who had traveled from abroad to work on the conference, contacted Sassoon almost weekly. Each time, there was a new excuse: a server issue at the bank, incorrect account details, business travel, or that he was at the bedside of his gravely ill father-in-law in New York – while telling others that he himself was gravely ill in the hospital.

The creditor remained patient until one morning, he sent a message:

“Enough with this charade… I don’t know what you hoped to gain by stringing me along but that doesn’t matter anymore,” he wrote, concluding that he would report Sassoon to both the FBI and Pompeo. “You want to run to Pompeo as if he will pay you?” Sassoon replied sarcastically. “If you can’t wait, that is up to you, but all that will do is ensure continuing problems that will not enable me to pay your invoice.”

The creditor reported Sassoon to the FBI but has had no update on the case’s progress. He, along with most of those who worked on the conference, remains unpaid.

They had hoped that a prosecutor would initiate an ex officio preliminary investigation. However, lawyers they consulted informed them that the prosecution service is overwhelmed with cases and that it is extremely rare for such an investigation to be launched without a formal complaint. Those who spoke to Kathimerini expressed reluctance to pursue legal action themselves, believing they would waste time and even more money on legal fees.

The eviction

About two weeks after the news reports, Sassoon handed over the keys to the luxury apartment on Rigillis Street and returned to the apartment he had rented with his wife in Voula. While he had consistently paid rent until then, in December 2023, he stopped – failing to cover not just the rent but also the utility bills. When the electricity was cut off, he was forced to transfer the account to his name and set up a payment plan, paying the first installment to have the power restored.

Months later, a bailiff knocked on the apartment door. His wife refused to open it, but neighbors recall that an eviction notice was posted on the door. By the end of June 2024, they were forced to leave the apartment. They are still living somewhere in Athens, though their exact whereabouts remain unknown.

Perhaps due to the publicity surrounding his story, Sassoon initially refrained from making professional connections in Greece – at least with those he had interacted with before the conference. However, he shifted his focus abroad.

At the end of December 2023, Kathimerini received an email from the head of an investment fund in Chicago. “We started having discussions with him a few weeks ago and they are almost going ‘too good to be true,’ so we started doing some research and found your articles,” the message read. They had never met in person – their interactions had been entirely online.

At the same time, Sassoon was telling those seeking him out for payment that he was in Chicago. He sent photos of the view from his apartment in a skyscraper and of himself outside a school where he claimed he was waiting for his nephew.

On February 19, he messaged one of his creditors, saying he was waiting for a bank to open in Manhattan so he could personally visit and resolve an issue preventing a transfer from reaching its recipient.

In reality, that same morning, he was at the Evelpidon court complex in Athens.

That day, the first legal action against him in Greek courts was scheduled to be heard. The case involved over a million euros deposited by a Cameroonian businessman into Greek bank accounts Sassoon had provided. The two men had shaken hands and signed contracts for the creation of Ascott Citadines, a luxury hotel in Cameroon.

Sassoon had not only guaranteed the funding – $30 million for the project – but also full legal, consulting and financial support. He claimed his business group owned two banks in Europe and assured that everything would proceed quickly.

The Cameroonian businessman not only wired the money but also sent his children to work alongside Sassoon in Athens. Their relationship soured when he realized Sassoon’s promises were empty. Beyond setting up a company in Athens, nothing had actually been done.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, tensions escalated, and office staff recalled the Cameroonian investor’s children abruptly leaving Greece.

A few months later, the court ordered Sassoon’s bank accounts to be frozen. The businessman’s lawsuit and claim for damages remain pending in court.

Fresh plans

From the summer of 2024 onward, according to Kathimerini’s confirmed information, Sassoon resumed various meetings in Athens. He also contacted at least one real estate agent, looking to rent a seaside apartment with a monthly rent of €5,000 – though he ultimately did not lease any of the properties he viewed.

Kathimerini has also learned that, under pressure from an Israeli creditor to whom he owes over a million euros, Sassoon returned €10,000 in January. According to the creditor, Sassoon promised further payments as long as he did not share information with Kathimerini.

At one of his business meetings at a seaside cafe in a southern Athens suburb, Sassoon openly discussed his new investment plans, focusing primarily on real estate with American clients while also stating that he was looking for new partners.

One of his conversation partners recalls that just before they got up from the table, Sassoon made what seemed like a necessary warning:

“If you search for my name online, you will, of course, read about the Sassoon dynasty and my family’s long history. Unfortunately, you will also come across various fairy tales. They are trying to bring me down. But as you can see, months have passed since these so-called revelations, and nothing has happened to me,” he said confidently.