The year of his death (2003), Forbes magazine ranked Yiannis Latsis number 101 on its list of the world's richest people, with a fortune estimated at $6.4 billion.
The most renowned of these vessels was the Neraida (ex-Laurana), an Italian-built passenger ship that was routed in the coastal line of the Argo-Saronic Gulf from 1950 to 1974.
Three years later, he purchased his first oil tanker, the Spyros, which was used for the transportation of liquid molasses from Egypt to Greece and the UK.
[6] The Latsis commercial empire has been closely involved with German firm Hochtief in both constructing and managing Spata airport.
Hellenic Petroleum, according to its own accounts, in 2000, paid $912 million to acquire a 34 percent interest in the Athens Airport Fuel Pipeline Company.
Latsis's development arm, Lamda, is a partner with Hochtief in a series of vast, part-EU funded motorway projects across Greece, as part of the "Trans European Network".
And between 1999 and 2004, during the time when Spata airport was completed, the commission last week revealed[citation needed] that the giant EFG Eurobank Ergasias banking group, controlled by Latsis family interests, held an exclusive contract to handle all EU structural funds coming to Greece, totalling €28 billion.