Angelo Tsakopoulos


Angelo Tsakopoulos is a Greek American businessman and real estate developer in Sacramento, California and the founder and owner of AKT Development. Tsakopoulos attended California State University, Sacramento.
Tsakopoulos was a minority owner of the Sacramento Mountain Lions franchise of the short lived United Football League along his son, Angelo Tsakopoulos, Jr., who presently serves as president of AKT Development. In 2002, Tsakopoulos purchased a 70,000 volume collection on Hellenistic civilization and donated it to the library of California State University, Sacramento where it is available for use by the community .

Early life and career

Tsakopoulos was born in Rizes, a small village in Arcadia, Greece. He arrived in United States with his family in 1951, eventually settling in Sacramento, California after having lived in New York City and the Chicago, Illinois area. His older brother, George, who would arrive in the U.S. in 1955 after having been wounded in the Greek Civil War, would later also become a major investor with his brother in Sacramento real estate.
Tsakopoulos founded Sacramento's AKT Development Inc. in 1964, which was when the company made its first real estate sale. George Tsakopoulos died at the age of 81 in Sacramento, California.
His daughter, Eleni Kounalakis, served as president of AKT Development. She served as United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2010–2013 and is the Lieutenant Governor of California.
Tsakopoulos was fined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for a violation of the Clean Water Act. Tsakopoulos sued the government and was able to bring his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, though the Court found against him.
From the :
Justice Anthony Kennedy had to recuse himself from the case because of his acquaintance with Tsakopoulos and only eight justices were left deciding the case. The ruling turned out to be a 4–4 tie. Because of the tie, the ruling against Tsakopoulos by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was automatically affirmed.