A Columbia University psychiatry professor is facing serious allegations after reportedly enticing a retired Wall Street financier and subsequently defrauding him of $1.3 million. The money was allegedly used to purchase a home in Greece, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
The victim, 72-year-old Frank Watrous Hamilton III, was described by his son as “vulnerable” following a stroke in 2018 that significantly impacted his mental and physical health. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, highlights the fragility Hamilton experienced after this life-altering event.
The circumstances of Hamilton’s encounter with Maria Karayiorgou, a professor emerita of psychiatry at Columbia University, remain unclear. However, Hamilton’s son contends that the professor should have recognized his father’s frail and vulnerable condition before engaging in a romantic relationship with him in either 2021 or 2022.
$1.3 million to purchase a home in Greece, according to a lawsuit. Columbia University
The family accuses Dr. Karayiorgou of strategically entering Hamilton’s life with the intent to exploit his compromised state, gain his trust, and manipulate him to access his assets for her personal gain. This narrative is central to the family’s case against her.
Hamilton, who had two children, enjoyed a nearly five-decade-long career on Wall Street, eventually rising to an executive position at Promontory Interfinancial Network, which later became known as IntraFi.
The lawsuit paints the picture of an alleged ‘age-gap honey trap,’ where Karayiorgou, then 57, is said to have frequently traveled from New York to Florida. She reportedly spent significant holidays and both of their birthdays with Hamilton, further cementing her presence in his life, according to the family’s claims.
During several of these social gatherings, Hamilton referred to Karayiorgou as his fiancée or wife, according to the allegations.
While she whispered sweet nothings, the alleged golddigger had her sights set on a house in Athens, Greece, persistently requesting, pressuring and guilt-tripping Hamilton into footing the bill, the family contended.
After just a few months of love-bombing, Hamilton wired her $100,000 on April 4, 2022 and then $1.2 million on May 18, 2022 for the $1.3 million pad in Athens, Greece, they claimed in legal papers.
stroke left him “vulnerable” and “disoriented,” the suit claimed. Millennium Cremation Service
Though there was an unspoken agreement to put the house under both their names, Karayiorgou was listed as the sole owner, and then allegedly cut ties with Hamilton, they said in the court filing.
A lawyer for the family, who discovered the wire transfers after his Jan. 26, 2025 death, did not return messages seeking comment.
The Columbia professor — who studies the genetics of schizophrenia and has 146 published scientific papers that have received more than 16,876 citations in other papers, according to Science Direct — “intentionally exploited Hamilton’s vulnerabilities and used her position of trust and confidence to influence” him, his family alleged.
She is currently listed as the Acting Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Psychiatry at the Morningside Heights institution.
Karayiorgou, who owned a $1.7 million dollar home in the tony Riverdale section of the Bronx, records show, could not immediately be reached for comment.
