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American tycoon Warren Buffett defines as "total fabrications" the publications, according to which he and Italian real estate agent Alessandro Proto have bought the Greek island Agios Thomas.

"Until the publications started coming out I had never heard of the guy (Proto - author’s note), who is making the claims about the Greek island," Buffett states in a statement that his spokesperson has disseminated by e-mail.

The "news" was published in the Saturday issue of the Greek newspaper Proto Thema. Then various media, including the Athens News Agency and a website of the US magazine Newsweek, republished it.

Meanwhile, in response to a question by the agency Reuters, the Italian company Proto Enterprises announced that Alessandro Proto’s statements were misrepresented. "Mr. Proto has never said that Warren Buffett has bought a Greek island. He said there was interest in offering an island to Mr Buffett," Proto’s assistant Federica Sala states in an e-mail. "It is not our responsibility if the media report the news in a different way."

According to Sala, Alessandro Proto was hoping to take advantage of the advertising "to get directly to Mr. Buffett," citing a favourite saying of the US tycoon, "You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." The communication of Sala states, "In this particular case, Mr. Proto is dressed and sooner or later he will sell a Greek island to Mr. Buffett."