Greek institute says may have been ‘deceived’ in alleged Tom Hanks event
A company called Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy (HICD) said on Thursday is was working to clarify if its representative had been “deceived” over an alleged agreement with American actor Tom Hanks to participate in an event honoring his work.
Tom Hanks and his actress and singer wife Rita Wilson accused HICD of fraud, after it used Hanks’ name to promote an event where the Oscar-winning actor would allegedly be presented with an award for his films and for promoting Greece.
In separate tweets, Hanks and Wilson clarified that the actor never signed or agreed to be in any way involved in HICD or the event they promote.
HICD claimed the institute is cooperating with Greek authorities to establish whether its representative, Ada Iliopoulou, “has fallen victim to fraud” from an alleged representative of Hanks, and whether “the documents it holds” are authentic.
It also said that entrance to the event, which would allegedly be held on October 7 at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, was free of charge.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation said earlier in the day HICD’s event is a hoax.
“As the SNFCC stated earlier, the news of Mr Tom Hanks being awarded by the SNFCC is a hoax,” it tweeted.
“We were surprised to read in recent press article and posts, as well as via Ms. Rita Wilson's tweet, about an upcoming award ceremony honoring actor Tom Hanks that is allegedly being organized by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. We would like to refute categorically this information which clearly falls into the category of fake news,” SNFCC said in a post on its Facebook page.
