Cyprus Crime

Crime in Cyprus is more about corruption than violence. It qualifies as the national sport. Anyone from Spain might get a feeling of Déjà vu all over again. They know too much about Spanish Practices but see:-

Paphos Mayor In Court

Deputy Attorney General Took Bribes From Bent Lawyers - Allegedly

Cyrus Port Chief Might Be Charged With Bribery & Money Laundering

Match Fixing Rife In Cyprus Says Ref

Central Bank Boss Concealed Bad Debts To Get €9 Billion Loan

Central Bank Of Cyprus Governor Bribed

Cyprus Corruption Is Big - It Always Was

Tombs Of The Kings Road Works Held Up By Problems

Church Forced To Sell Assets To Pay Euro Crisis Debts

Passport Racket Makes Big Profit

Cyprus Telecommunication Company Is Bent

Six Convicted Of Tobacco Smuggling

Health Industry Is Corrupt

Gang War In Cyprus

State Land Management Is Deeply Corrupt

Nicosia Sewage & Bribery

Drunk Driver Beats Manslaughter Rap By Extensive Corruption

Cyta Pension Fund Defrauded

Gang War In Cyprus

Paphos Mayor In Court Regarding Threats [ 16 October 2014 ]
PAPHOS Mayor Savvas Vergas will appear in court on Thursday to hear charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, related to SMS messages sent from the mobile phone of a municipal worker to several people involved in a major property fraud case. This follows on from forgery of planning permission documents.

Paphos Mayor Arrest Extended [ 20 October 2014 ]
A charity has been defrauded. Then there is the forgery.

Paphos Mayor Arrested For The Third Time [ 26 November 2014 ]
He is on the skids.

Paphos Mayor Arrested For Fraud [ 27 November 2014 ]
QUOTE
Paphos Mayor Savvas Vergas, the general manager of the Paphos Sewerage Board Eftychios Malikides and former Disy municipal councillor George Michaelides will appear in court on Thursday after being arrested connection with a sewage board fraud investigation.
UNQUOTE
Other mayors will be making sure there is no evidence pointing at them.

Paphos Mayor Resigns [ 2 December 2014 ]
He is still(?) in prison. The outstanding issues are:-
Forgery
Bribery
Theft
Abuse of planning law.

Paphos Mayor Had €6 Million In His Bank Account [ 5 December 2014 ]
Where did that come from? The proceeds of crime or not as the case may be. He is still inside and his wife is in the frame.

Paphos Bribe Suspects Released - State Is Appealing
The mayor fingered various locals. They were nicked. Now they are out. Heigh ho.

Five Thieves Convicted Of Pension Fund Fraud [ 23 December 2014 ]
They used fraud, bribery & corruption to buy land for a pension fund at a grossly excessive price. One took a bung of €300,000.

Six Going To Trial Facing 154 Charges [ 29 December 2014 ]
QUOTE
SIX people, including former Paphos Mayor Savvas Vergas will go to trial on January 8 facing a total 154 charges, including conspiracy to commit a felony, conspiracy to defraud, bribing a state official, extortion, abusing authority, corruption and acquiring property by illegal means in the Sewerage Board scandal.
Vergas, Paphos Sewerage Board (SAPA) chief Eftychios Malekkides, and former municipal councillors from DISY, AKEL and DIKO – Giorgos Michaelides, Vasos Vasileiou and Efstathios Efstathiou respectively, were each released on €200,000 bail. They were also required to hand over their travel documents and must sign in every day at their local police station.

The court also referred for trial current AKEL municipal councillor Giorgos Siailis, who was implicated in the case by Malekkides. Siailis – who is facing lesser charges, was bailed for €50,000. All of the suspects allegedly took part in a corruption ring centered around the sewerage construction project. According to police reports, contractors interested in the project were routinely asked for kickbacks so they could secure contracts, while the SAPA officials kept adding to the cost of the project so that the contractors could get more work. The project, which was originally budgeted at around €80 million, ended up costing around a €120 million.............

The SAPA scandal is not the only weight on Savvas Vergas’ shoulders. The former mayor will soon have to appear before court on a number of other cases. He is also suspected of a shady land deal with land development company Aristo Developers where he allegedly gave permission so the company could illegally take green space and use it for building, sending threats via text message to a municipal councillor, a reporter and a municipality employee, building a tennis court adjacent to his home on public property without permission and green-lighting a tax exemption for a concert organiser who had promised to give all proceedings to charity but failed to do so.
UNQUOTE
€40 million is a useful sum, one worth stealing.

Limassol Mayor Claims He Is Not Bent [ 31 December 2014 ]
Presumably he thinks no evidence will come to light. Where does this leave the mayors of Nicosia, Larnaca et cetera?
PS The mayor of Jerusalem got six years for exactly the same kind of fraud even though he is a Jew.

Paphos Was One Long Corruption Party [ 4 February 2015 ]
With maybe €4 million in bribes you might think that is right. But the mayor is in prison. The next one says he will keep his fingers out of the till. The theory is that civilization ends at Dover; it's downhill all the way from there. Of with Cameron importing Pakistanis, corruption has come to England. See the next one.

Nicosia Next In Sewerage Scandals
The Nicosia sewerage project ended up costing 50 per cent more ... to six years each on charges of corruption and misappropriation of funds. A EUR 5 million cost overrun is enough to make people rich(er).

Former judge appointed to look into bribery claims [ 14 March 2015 ]
QUOTE
Former judge Panayiotis Kallis will conduct the investigation into bribery allegations concerning the deputy attorney-general, it was announced on Saturday. The name of the investigator was announced by Attorney-general Costas Clerides. “The timeframe, which will be very short, will be given tomorrow or Monday,” Clerides said. Kallis had investigated the Helios airline crash that happened on August 14, 2005.
He will now look into claims that deputy attorney-general Rikkos Erotokritou had been ‘bribed’ during a private case he brought against the Resolution Authority. Erotokritou had sued the authority before his appointment, after over €600,000 he had deposited in Laiki Bank were lost after the lender folded as part of the island’s bailout. Erotokritou demanded the amount be used to offset a loan he had of the same amount but under a different company. The law firm representing the Resolution Authority, Neocleous and Co, missed the court date – the alleged bribe — and the judge ruled in Erotokritou’s favour. The firm went back a few months later and requested the decision to be set aside. The request was granted.
UNQUOTE
Civilization ends at Calais. It is downhill all the way from there.

Fury over leak of MP loan list
MPs in Cyprus don't bother to pay back the money they borrowed. It is good for their cash flow. It also amounts to robbery. MPs make law. MPs should live by law.
PS The Cyprus Mail was tactful. It did not publish the list on line, only on paper. The biggest chancer is Christakis Giovannis at EUR 28,291,770

How many MPs have Non-Performing Loans? [ 22 February 2015 ]
The head banker asks whether MPs are crooks protecting their little mates. But then he is not a local so he has no relatives to keep happy.

Pegia Perversion Progress [ 20 May 2016 ]
A businessman is using thugs to block access to a beach in Coral Bay, which is costing the council money. He wants planning permission to build a 'boutique hotel' and to charge people for access. Why bother with playing straight when corruption has been so effective for the last several centuries?

Larnaca Town Clerk Arrested For Thieving [ 27 May 2016 ]
QUOTE
The Larnaca District Court on Thursday remanded municipal secretary Lefteris Empedoclis for eight days to facilitate police investigations. The 55-year-old is suspected of being involved in bribery, the illegal acquisition of assets, corruption and money laundering.

Empedoclis was arrested on Wednesday after Theodosis Chrysostomou, a businessman who owns a night-club in the Mackenzie beach area in Larnaca told CID that due to irregularities found at his establishment, he paid the municipal secretary €35,000 in cash to make sure the problem was ‘settled’. The money was never received by the municipality and no procedures were initiated to correct the irregularities since September 2015 when Chrysostomou paid the money............

Larnaca municipality is already in trouble with the law as Mayor Andreas Louroudjiatis was arrested in March in connection with investigations into the operation of the Paphos and Koshi waste management plants.
UNQUOTE
Cyprus is going through a cleaning of the Augean Stables because? Pass. There is plenty of dirt to be found.

Businessman Bribed Paphos Mayor For Bent Contracts [ 10 May 2017 ]
He bunged the Paphos mayor EUR 310,000, another useful tax free sum. The mayor got an extra two years on top of the six he is already doing.

Deputy Attorney General Took Bribes From Bent Lawyers - Allegedly
Aforesaid Deputy is not amused. The Deputy AG in Israel was different. He thought that the law applied to politicians as well, which is why the President got seven years for raping his secretary.

Deputy Attorney General Convicted Of Corruption [ 9 February 2017 ]
QUOTE
Former deputy attorney-general Rikkos Erotokritou, lawyers Andreas Kyprizoglou and Panayiotis Neocleous, and the Andreas Neocleous & Co LLC law firm were handed a guilty verdict by the Nicosia criminal court on Wednesday. They had been facing charges of bribery, conspiracy to defraud, and conspiracy to subvert the course of justice.

In a marathon nine-hour session, the criminal court’s three judges took turns reading out their full ruling in the trial, which found Erotokritou guilty of bribery, abuse of power, corruption, and conspiracy.............

The four were said to have colluded to arrange for Erotokritou to launch the criminal prosecution of five Russian individuals and one company, at the behest and to the benefit of the Neocleous law firm, which had long been battling them in Cypriot and Russian courts over ownership and control of Providencia, a trust-fund worth hundreds of millions.
UNQUOTE
So politicians and lawyers are not above the law in Cyprus. It seems that they are cleaning up their act for some reason. It would be wonderful if Her Majesty's Government decided to do the same.

Police acknowledge legal challenges in attorney-general case
By Angelos Anastasiou
POLICE WILL investigate corruption claims made by the deputy attorney-general, which also include Attorney-general Costas Clerides, the police chief said on Monday, as he highlighted the legal deficiency concerning such cases. Zacharias Chrysostomou was briefed over the weekend about the contents of deputy.

Deputy Attorney General Of Cyprus Charged With Fraud [ 20 May 2015 ]
He is in for conspiracy, accepting bribes, and corruption.

Deputy Attorney General Of Cyprus Accuses His Boss
His story was investigated then dismissed. Was it just a counter-attack?

Deputy Attorney General Of Cyprus Sacked [ 27 September 2015 ]
The charge was conduct unbecoming. Then there are the criminal charges of bribery etc. He looks like a miserable little third rater.

Deputy Attorney General Goes On Trial For Conspiracy And Bribery [ 27 September 2015 ]
QUOTE
THE prosecution in the criminal case against former deputy Attorney General Rikkos Erotokritou and three others, in which they face charges of conspiracy and bribery, called its first two witnesses to the stand on Friday, former police chief Michalis Papageorgiou and process server Panayiotis Klitou.
UNQUOTE
This is in Cyprus where Crime runs to corruption.

Deputy Attorney General Of Cyprus Gets Three Years For Thieving [ 2 March 2017 ]
Deputy attorney general whines about his problems.

Bent Lawyer Gets Out Of Cyprus Prison Very Early [ 1 June 2017 ]
QUOTE
Main opposition Akel criticised the government on Tuesday over a decision to transfer a well-known lawyer from prison, where he is doing time for corruption, to a rehabilitation centre, supposedly for dental treatment.

It emerged last Friday that Panayiotis Neocleous, jailed for two and a half years for corruption together with former deputy attorney-general Rikkos Erotokritou, will undergo dental treatment and will be accommodated at the EOKA rehabilitation centre in Palodhia.

According to Akel spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, the decision to transfer the convict to the facility in his hometown was questionable. On top of this, taxpayers would have to pay some €500,000 for a room to be turned into a cell and the guards, Stefanou said...........

The first council rejected a request to transfer Neocleous to the centre for back problems. The second one examined a request for dental implant treatment, which was approved, Stefanou said..........

Neocleous and Erotokritou, who was jailed for three and half years, were found guilty of conspiring to arrange for the favourable outcome in a civil lawsuit the former deputy AG had filed against legacy Laiki bank in 2013, in which he sought to have about €0.5 million of loans written off against his seized deposits.
UNQUOTE
Perhaps we should be grateful that he was ever convicted. Corruption is a life style choice, one that has not gone away.

Cyrus Port Chief Might Be Charged With Bribery & Money Laundering [ 16 January 2015 ]
QUOTE
FORMER Cyprus Ports Authority head Yiannakis Kokkinos, who last October had been alleged to have repeatedly handed shoeboxes full of cash to CPA messengers with instructions to deposit them in his personal bank account, could face bribery and money laundering charges, sources close to the investigation told the Cyprus Mail on Thursday.
UNQUOTE
Another Cypriot, another chancer.

Tombs Of The Kings Road Works Held Up By Problems
The sewer was part of the contract. Overseers signed off on it but it was never built. Corruption? Believe it! Chickens may come home to roost. That is just part of the fun.

Match Fixing Rife In Cyprus Says Ref [ 18 December 2014 ]
QUOTE
Suspicion of referees being entangled in match fixing is deep seeded within Cypriot football fans and not without cause. Numerous UEFA warnings aside, Cyprus tops the match fixing table when it comes to the top league, according to a report issued by international match fixing watchdog Federbet in June.
UNQUOTE
Cyprus is world class when it comes to corruption, just like the perpetrators of Spanish Practices in Marbella.

Referee Threatened After Telling Police About Match Fixing In Cyprus [ 23 December 2014 ]
The perpetrator has not been captured yet.

Two Referees Arrested
QUOTE
THE chairman of the Cyprus Referees’ Association (CRA) Michalis Argirou and former CRA member Michalis Spyrou were arrested on Wednesday night on suspicion of match fixing, a police source told the Cyprus Mail.

The two men were arrested early in the evening, following a meeting at the Legal Services with Attorney-general Costas Clerides and police investigators. They were both expected to spend the night in custody and give statements to investigators..........

These are the first arrests following international referee Marios Panayi’s allegations of extensive match-fixing in the island’s top league, especially when it came to relegation matches.

They were preceded by the arrest of a football club official on Christmas Day, who was suspected of threatening former Aris Limassol football club president Kyriakos Hadjikyriakou. The alleged victim had been called in by investigators to give a statement and corroborated Panayi’s allegations. Upon leaving the police station, Hadjikyriakou told authorities that the other club official called and threatened him not to get involved.
UNQUOTE
Who is the one who can bend the results? Try the referee or the goal keeper.

Car Bombs, Corruption And Illegal Betting – How Football In Cyprus Spiralled Out Of Control [ 8 September 2016 ]
The Guardian is being sensationalist. At all events it has annoyed the locals. Of course they are corrupt. That's just the way they are. Now there are bores upsetting the apple cart. That is why the mayor of Paphos got six years. C'est la vie. More and better details at Cyprus Crime.

Central Bank Boss Concealed Bad Debts To Get €9 Billion Loan [ 18 Oct 2014 ]
QUOTE
FORMER Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) governor Panicos Demetriades has found himself in hot water again as the New York Times reported yesterday that he had played down concerns raised over the granting of some €9bn in emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to now-defunct Laiki Bank in a series of 2012 sessions of the European Central Bank’s governing council.

ECB rules stated that ELA funding, available to solvent but illiquid commercial banks only against collateral, was the responsibility of national central banks, with the governing council holding effective veto power.

According to governing council minutes cited by the paper, late in 2012, and as Laiki’s ELA lifeline mounted, German central banker Jens Weidmann started raising objections about the extent of the ECB’s exposure to the woefully undercapitalized bank.

“It was not the governing council’s job to keep afloat banks that were awaiting recapitalisation and were not currently solvent,” Weidmann was quoted as saying in a December 2012 meeting.

And in January 2013, two months before the dramatic Eurogroup decisions that wound Laiki down and converted roughly half of uninsured deposits into Bank of Cyprus equity, Weidmann claimed that the value of the collateral posted by Laiki for ELA had been inflated by about €1.3bn.

This, the New York Times said, was a powerful charge against then-CBC governor Panicos Demetriades, as it implied he had played down the bank’s problems in order to keep it alive.

In June 2013, Demetriades admitted that Laiki had been kept “on a ventilator” until Cyprus’ February 2013 presidential elections.

According to the governing council minutes, Demetriades rejected Weidmann’s claim and said that his risk experts had a better understanding of the assets in question than their counterparts in Frankfurt.

Christian Noyer, the head of the French central bank, said that he was “very much concerned” by the aggressive way that the Cyprus central bank was valuing the collateral, adding that it “doubled the risk” for the ECB.

Klaas Knot of the Dutch central bank also chimed in, saying the collateral issue made him feel “very uncomfortable.”

“If ELA was provided without adequate collateral, this would be a grave issue,” Weidmann concluded, according to the minutes, as he pushed for the loans to be withdrawn.

But despite having received a draft report from the asset-management company Pimco that said the bank needed about €10bn in fresh cash — or about ten times its capital at the time – the governing council decided “not to object” to the continuance of the lifeline.

In a statement, the ECB once again pointed squarely at Demetriades, arguing that national banks, and not itself, are responsible for authorising ELA disbursements, and that in the case of Laiki, the governing council had relied on Demetriades’ assurances as to the bank’s solvency.

“The ECB neither provides nor approves emergency liquidity assistance,” the statement said.

“It is the national central bank, in this case the Central Bank of Cyprus, that provides ELA to an institution that it judges to be solvent at its own risk and under its own terms and conditions.”

“In this specific case, there was full consensus in the governing council on the need to get assurances from the Central Bank of Cyprus that this bank was solvent. The solvency was confirmed explicitly by the Central Bank of Cyprus, which also confirmed the proper valuation of collateral after an intense dialogue between it and the ECB.”

“The ECB was not the supervisor and fully relied on the assessment of the Central Bank of Cyprus.”
UNQUOTE
The Central Bank of Cyprus chose to bung their little mates €9 billion so its their problem, isn't it? It depends whose money it was in the first place.

Central Bank Of Cyprus Governor Bribed [ 16 January 2017 ]
QUOTE
A warrant for the arrest of Kyriacos Magiras, a Greek national accused of being involved in the suspected bribery of former governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus Christodoulos Christodoulou in 2007, was issued by the Nicosia district court on Monday.

Allowing time for the warrant to be executed, judge Marilena Miliotou adjourned the trial for March 22.

Magiras was one of the individuals for whom the International Court of Arbitration had asked Cyprus to refrain from issuing arrest warrants, since they would be required to be attend the hearings of a €1 billion redress claim brought by Marfin Investment Group (MIG) and several Greek businessmen against the Republic of Cyprus over its responsibility for the demise of Laiki bank.

In December, the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) approved a request for Magiras’ arrest.

In addition to Christodoulou and Magiras, defendants in the case are Greek ship owner Michalis Zolotas, Michael Fole, Christodoulou’s daughter Athina, her former husband Andreas Kizourides, and companies AC Christodoulou Consultants Ltd, MIG, and Focus Maritime Corp.

MIG founder and longtime chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos was also a defendant until his death last November.

Through AC Christodoulou Consultants, ostensibly a consulting firm, Christodoulou is accused of having taken a €1-million bribe from Zolotas’ Focus, which in turn prosecutors say was a front for Vgenopoulos, whose MIG sought to buy a larger stake of Laiki in 2006 than was allowed by the CBC’s rules.

Athina Christodoulou and then-husband Kizourides were officially the consulting firm’s administrators.

At a tax evasion trial in 2014, Christodoulou confessed to not having declared the €1 million income but claimed it represented compensation for consultancy services over 10 years, paid in advance.

At the time, he was handed a five-month jail term for tax-dodging.
UNQUOTE
More Cypriots, more corruption.

Bank of Cyprus Elects 6 Russians Onto The Board
Six Russians were elected to the 16-member board of directors of the Bank of Cyprus. The substantial minority demonstrates the large stake Russia had, and will continue to have, in the Cypriot banking system.

Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy, a former KGB official and Putin ally, was elected by other board members as vice chairman. Strzhalkovskiy is also the former CEO of Russia’s Norilsk Nikel, the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer.

Other approved nominees are Dmitry Chichikashvili, president of Insigma Group, a Moscow-based construction company, Igor Lazhevsk, Deutsche Bank’s deputy chairman for Eastern Europe, Anzhelika Anshakova, a board of director of Binbank, Eriskhan Kurazov, General Director at CJSC, a Moscow-based finance group, and Anton Smetanin.

Vladimir Sidorov, the former deputy head of investment at Vneshekonombank, was short-listed, but not elected. Sidorov also runs MCRS Ltd, a lift service in Cyprus.

All Russian board members were nominated by law firms with close ties to Russian and Chinese investors.

The other approved board members are Christis Hassapis, who will serve as the chairman, Costas Hadjipapas, Marios Kalochoritis, Konstantinos Katsaros, Erishkan Kurazov, Adonis Papaconstantinou, Xanthos Vrachas, Marinos Yialelis, Marios Yiannas, Andreas Yiasemides, and Ioannis Zographakis. None of the nominees were from Western Europe or America.

49 names were submitted for consideration, most of which represented individual or corporate interest.
Interim CEO Christo Sorotos was not appointed to continue his leadership role in the bank’s restructuring.

Nominees were mostly major depositors, both domestic and foreign, who held, and lost, billions of dollars when their wealth was used to bail out and save the Cypriot banks in March in an unprecedented ‘bail-in’.

A general shareholder meeting was held in Nicosia on Tuesday with 53 percent of share capital present (both in person and by proxy), representing about 2.5 billion shares.

Protestors outside of the bank before the general meeting demanded greater transparency, as shares plummeted from nearly 1 euro to 1 cent during the bank’s financial restructuring. The bank absorbed the assets of Laiki Bank which was forced to shut down in March.

“We want transparency . . . We want to know on what basis the value of our shares has shrunk by 99 per cent,” Stavros Agrotis, a Nicosia stockbroker, said. Some shareholders left the meeting in protest.

President Putin decided against using government funds to bailout Cyprus, but agreed to restructure a 2.5 billion loan issued in 2011.

Cyprus instead turned to the ‘Troika’ of lenders - which agreed to fund $13 billion (€10 billion) of the island’s bailout package on the condition an internal ‘hair-cut’ was applied- a levy of 47.5 percent on all accounts with over €100,000 in deposits.

The corporate tax rate in Cyprus is 10 percent, half of Russia’s, which made it a useful tax haven for Russian money. Up to $30 billion was deposited in the island’s banks.

The strategy to keep funds in Cyprus turned into a billion dollar headache when funds were levied and converted into bank equity, which turned Russian depositors into big shareholders overnight.

Bank Of Cyprus Fraud Probe Concluded [ 4 December 2014 ]
QUOTE
According to Clerides, the cases relate to “some offences already penalised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, for which it has imposed fines.”

Last June, financial watchdog CySEC broke precedent when it imposed a total €8m in fines to former officials of the two banks in connection with these cases.

The fines were issued against 12 former BoC officials, including former CEO Andreas Eliades, his successor Yiannis Kypri and former board chairman Theodoros Aristodemou, each fined €530,000, and 11 Laiki officials, including former strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos and his right-hand man at the bank Efthymios Bouloutas, each fined €705,000.

CySEC head Demetra Kalogirou recently said the Commission has yet to collect on the fines.

A similar case against now-defunct Laiki Bank officials is being built by the authorities, but practical issues appear to be holding back investigations. However, Clerides appeared confident that the Laiki case will also be concluded soon.
UNQUOTE
Did the head man lie to get a cash injection so that his little mates could jump ship before it went down? The official verdict is arriving. The truth? Who knows?

Five Bank Of Cyprus Officials To Be Prosecuted [ 18 December 2014 ]
QUOTE
THE Attorney-general’s office decided yesterday to prosecute five former Bank of Cyprus (BoC) officials, as part of a broader probe into the causes of last year’s financial meltdown.
Those to be indicted are former CEO Andreas Eliades, his successor Yiannis Kypri, former board chairman Theodoros Aristodemou, former vice chairman Andreas Artemi, and former first deputy CEO Yiannis Pehlivanidis, in charge of the bank’s Greek operations............

The precise charges are as yet unknown, but it’s understood that they likely relate to providing false and misleading statements about the bank’s capital adequacy and stock market manipulation – crimes punishable by imprisonment or a fine, or both............

Among other allegations, Kypri reportedly announced on December 10, 2009, that the bank had evaluated Greek bonds as “risky” and intended to divest its holdings.

However, without informing investors, the bank subsequently purchased a large package of Greek bonds. The bonds crashed and burned in 2011 when European Union leaders agreed on a Greek debt write-down. Cypriot lenders lost an estimated €4.5bn as a result...........
In 2005, Laiki’s share capital structure underwent a change following the acquisition of a strategic share by Andreas Vgenopoulos’ Marfin and the Tosca Investment Fund, after HSBC’s decision to sell its stake in the bank’s share capital.
Problems in Cyprus snowballed into the winding-down of Laiki Bank under a mountain of debt and a large chunk of deposits exceeding €100,000 being converted to equity to prop up the Bank of Cyprus.

Authorities were forced to seize uninsured deposits at its two main banks in March 2013 to qualify for €10bn in aid from international lenders, the first time bank savers were burned in the euro zone crisis.

The wider police probe spans the years 2006 to 2013. Its scope covers the expansion into Greece, banks’ corporate governance, Cypriot banks’ purchase of junk Greek bonds, and how now-defunct Laiki Bank came to amass some €9bn in emergency liquidity, a liability since passed onto BoC.
UNQUOTE
So justice might be done. Customers definitely were.

Cyprus Central Bank Governor Charged With Taking A Million Euro Bung [ 22 March 2017 ]
QUOTE
Former Central Bank governor Christodoulos Christodoulou, four other individuals, and three companies, were referred to trial before the criminal court on Wednesday over a €1mln payment to Christodoulou, allegedly in exchange for his collusion during the takeover of Laiki Bank in 2006...........

Apart from Christodoulou, the charge sheet includes Greek shipowner Michalis Zolotas, Christodoulou’s daughter Athina, her ex-husband Andreas Kizourides, former Laiki official Michael Fole, and companies A. C. Christodoulou Consultants Ltd, Marfin Investment Group (MIG), and Focus Maritime Corp...........

The defendants face a total of 29 charges including corruption, bribery, abuse of authority, abuse of trust, and money laundering. UNQUOTE
Big people, big bribes. Policemen come cheaper.

http://cyprus-mail.com/?p=48464

Cyprus Corruption Is Big - It Always Was
QUOTE
A FORMER general manager at Cyprus Airways (CY) used a company plane to transport his son’s car to another country at the airline’s – and taxpayer’s expense – deputies heard yesterday during a meeting of the ad hoc committee into the national carrier’s demise.
The incident was just one of several cases of mismanagement that were related to MPs by CY’s former legal adviser and its accountants.
Mismanagement, ineptitude and too-close ties with political parties and the government, led to CY’s downfall, according to the company’s legal advisor Polys Polyviou, who appeared before the ad hoc parliamentary committee. The committee is examining company documents dating back more than 30 years.

“Cyprus Airways was a miniature version of Cypriot society, and as such had its [society’s] positive and negative traits,” he said.
Polyviou spoke of the company’s inner workings and how it was continually exploited by managers, and politicians for political gain and profit.

KPMG’s managing director Andreas Christofides was also present and gave a shocking account of what took place in the company in the 1980s.

Christofides made specific mention to the term in office of one of the company’s former managers, Evdokios Savva. KPMG was appointed as an auditing firm to look into the company’s finances following Savva’s resignation in July 1981.

Savva, deputies heard, kept a secret account in a London bank where “politically exposed persons” from the UK wired money to pay for their tickets. The money never made it to the company, according to Christofides, but was instead deposited to Savva’s account.

Once the scandal was revealed, an arrest warrant for Savva was issued but he fled the country to the United States were it is believed that he currently resides.

The KPMG managing director spoke of other incidents of corruption and gross mismanagement, including another when Savva ordered a plane to be uses to transport his son’s car. Christofides also mentioned money that disappeared from the employee welfare fund that was used to pay overtime for the manager’s secretaries. In another incident changes to a CY building at the old Larnaca airport had cost 60 per cent more than originally budgeted.

“There were truly some terrible things happening in the company,” noted Christofides.

Polyviou shed some light on the subsequent management team, when Stavros Galatariotis took over.

By that point the government at the time, given what had gone on under Savva, decided to keep a tighter rein on the airline.

Polyviou said then President Spyros Kyprianou kept a close eye on the airline and that Galatariotis routinely “knocked on Kyprianou’s door to submit his requests.”

Galatariotis however, probably to encourage oversight, upgraded political party involvement in decision making by requesting that representatives from all parties were on the board.

“The signs were there and can be seen in the very close cooperation of the state and the company. No government has ever let Cyprus Airways operate based purely on company law,” Polyviou said.

He said the company did not bring in experts to advise them on major policy decisions but instead relied on the government and the political parties.

The resulting lack of proper expertise, according to Polyviou, was the “tragic” decision to buy the 20 per cent share British Airways had in Cyprus Airways in 1983, and expanding the company fleet.

Polyviou said Galatariotis’ reasoning was that if a representative of a rival company sat on the board he would be privy to inside information. The legal advisor said such a scenario wasn’t possible, since anyone sitting at board meetings was legally bound by confidentiality.

“Driving out British Airways deprived the company of a major strategic investor,” he argued.

After buying BA out, the CY board decided to expand the company fleet by buying from Airbus, a decision Polyviou also described as tragic. He suggested to the committee that they call upon then Galatariotis advisor at the time, a man named Rigas Doganis, to shed more light into why the company decided to buy the planes.

Polyviou also suggested that they look into Eurocypria, a charter subsidiary of Cyprus Airways that went bankrupt in 2010.

Polyviou said that when the EU looked into the inner working of Eurocypria they found evidence of mismanagement, such as overcompensation for retirement schemes and bloated staff bonuses.

“You are trying to save Eurocypria when you should be concerned with the fact that in two years time you will be called upon to prevent the shutdown of Cyprus Airways,” the EU had told CY executives in 2010, according to Polyviou, when the state was requesting permission to approve a state aid package that would keep the two companies afloat.

Polyviou also talked of Hellas Jet, also set up by CY. Hellas Jet was founded in 2003 to carry out scheduled flights from Athens airport but suffered heavy losses and was forced to shut down in 2005. CY sold Hellas Jet in 2006.

The former legal advisor to the company said Hellas Jet faced numerous problems from day one. He said he had to fly to Athens on the second day of operations to prevent the company offices being auctioned off.

The EU commission wasn’t the only one who saw the end of the company coming. During a cabinet meeting in 2007, former president Tassos Papadoulos had remarked that the company was no longer viable and that the path it was on would lead to bankruptcy. The President was commenting on the 2007 restructuring plan that was submitted by the state to the EU commission. According to Polyviou, Papadopoulos had said then that the plan was CY’s last chance.

Cyprus Airways was grounded in January, after the EU Commission issued a ruling ordering the company to return some €66 million it had received in state aid in 2012.
UNQUOTE
Bent? Cyprus? Impossible? NO! Make that certain.

Corruption 2014 - A Vintage Year In Cyprus [ 11 December 2015 ]
QUOTE
Rampant waste and dealings highly suggestive of corrupt practices are the highlights of the state’s report card for 2014.

In his annual report, which he presented to the President on Monday, Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides draws attention tax-cheat lawyers and doctors, ‘creative’ local council bookkeeping and profiteering on the sale and transfer of Turkish Cypriot properties.

Tax evasion, and the state’s inability to effectively crack down on laggards, is a consistent theme of the Auditor-general’s reports down the years. For 2014, Michaelides hones in on people in the medical and legal professions.
UNQUOTE
Business as usual, corruption as usual. 2015 is going to be bigger and better. Or perhaps it is just some of the big fish getting caught.

Property Fraud In Paphos Investigation Proceeds Apace [ 27 August 2017 ]
They drove the Turks out then stole their property. Looting is the way they did it.. But this time it is the mayor rocking the boat, not taking the bungs.

Co-op customer ran up €3.2m debt in account blunder [ 22 October 2018 ]
Conspiracy of cock up? The latter is the obvious answer.

Co-op gave loans regardless of ability to repay, probe hears [ 23 October 2018 ]
When bankers have, uncles, cousins whatever it can happen.

Non-Performing Loans Were Not The Cause Of The Co-ops Failure Says Ex-Boss [ 25 October 2018 ]
Aforesaid boss, Erotokritos Chlorakiotis, Demetrakis Stavrou and Constantinos Lyras, faces charges relating to conspiracy to defraud, obtaining goods under false pretences, unlawful acquisition of property, and money laundering. 7 BILLION went walkies; c'est la vie. Civilization ends at Dover.

Church Forced To Sell Assets To Pay Euro Crisis Debts
QUOTE
The Church of Cyprus, heavily hit by the country's financial crisis two years ago, will dispose of assets to help pay off €100m owed to banks, its head said on Friday.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II told state radio: "We made deals with the banks, and we are ready to give them some property, so that we can repay our debts and... start investing."

He did not say what banks were involved, nor did he explain whether the assets he referred to were collateral against loans or property that would be sold in order to pay them off.

The church, part of the worldwide Orthodox communion, is the largest landowner on the eastern Mediterranean island, and it has business interests that range from the hotel industry to beer and wine-making.
UNQUOTE
Greeks can't be trusted with money. QED.

Cyprus Sells European Passports - Cyprus Makes €2.5 Billion [ 8 November 2015 ]
The cost of sales is trivial; the mark up is humungous. Of course a million cunning rogues don't bother to pay. They just come and get treated as victims.

http://ww.ibtimes.co.uk/bank-cyprus-funded-controlled-by-ex-kgb-billionaires-former-rbs-deutsche-bank-financiers-1474198

Bank of Cyprus Controlled By KGB Man

The Bank of Cyprus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Cyprus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Vekselberg half Jew

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Ackermann German - approved by Wilbur Ross LBO wallah

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bank-cyprus-funded-controlled-by-ex-kgb-billionaires-former-rbs-deutsche-bank-financiers-1474198

Six Convicted Of Tobacco Smuggling In Larnaca [ 22 April 2016 ]
They made EUR 630,000, enough to be useful.

Cyta Pension Fund Defrauded [ 3 March 2017 ]
QUOTE
The project at the heart of a corruption scandal that saw state telecoms executives, police officers, and party members go to jail, has been left to rot, despite the millions from CyTA’s pension fund spent to construct it, the Dromolaxia mayor charged on Friday.
Kypros Andronikou said he has written two letters to the CyTA board but has not received any response. “This situation cannot continue,” he told the Cyprus Mail. He said the derelict site, known as Aero Centre, was now being used by drug addicts and has also been looted.............

The court sentenced former CyTA boss Stathis Kittis to eight years in prison, former EAC boss and former CyTA board member Charalambos Tsouris to three years, trade union representative and Cytavision director Orestis Vasiliou to nine years, land registry official Gregoris Souroullas to six and a half years, and high ranking AKEL member Venizelos Zanettos to three and a half years.

Two police officers were also jailed for six months later on after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

The case revolved around the purchase by CyTA’s pension fund of office space in Dromolaxia, near Larnaca airport, at a price several times the going market value.
UNQUOTE
More Cypriots, more thieving.

Cyprus Telecommunication Company Squandered Millions On Bogus Projects [ 17 November 2015 ]
Civilization ends at Dover. Then it is downhill. In fact Her Majesty's Government is better hiding corruption. Bribery tends to be a futures market rather using spot payment. It makes proving crime more difficult.

Cyprus Hospital Boss Arrested For Bribery [ 8 May 2016 ]
The local police have stirred themselves into action for some reason. It can happen. Recall that the mayor of Marbella was not merely arrested but charged, tried, convicted, sentenced & put in prison. There was large scale Bribery. The next mayor went down for the same reason, just like the next two. Spaniards are slow learners. The government stopped seeing the funny side of it after the fourth went so they took over. More and better details at Spanish Practices. It merely confirms what we all know; that civilization ends at Dover. Then it is down hill all the way.

Cyprus Surgeon Arrested For Corruption [ 25 May 2016 ]
That will cramp his style. Three more of them are already facing trial.

Cyprus Police Selling Passports - Allegedly [ 25 May 2016 ]
Corruption seems to be out of vogue there lately. At all events chickens are coming home to roost. It is all rather reminiscent of the fun and games in Marbella.

Five Cyprus Smugglers Go To Prison [ 28 May 2016 ]
QUOTE
Two customs officers were among six people who were jailed or fined by the Larnaca District Court on Friday for up to 24 months for their part in the illegal importation of tobacco which cost the state hundreds of thousands of euros in lost duties........

Customs Officers George Garivandinos, 62 and Costas Zaloumis, 60, received sentences of 20 months imprisonment each. Panayiotis Avraam, 42, a customs clearing agent received a 24-month sentence while Vashe Zatogian, 40, a cigar shop owner was sentenced to 10 months. Civil servant Christakis Savva, 48, received eight months for his part and coffeshop owner Andreas Teratsias was fined €2,800.
UNQUOTE
Corruption is out of fashion in Cyprus pro tempore.

Cyprus Police Get A Year Inside For GBH [ 28 May 2016 ]
They were on full pay until they were convicted. Now they might get sacked.

Cyprus Police Sell Bent Passports [ 8 June 2016 ]
They have cheated 100 Arab businessmen. Their passports were far from cheap at €145,000 or €90,000 for passports. They charge what the traffic will bear. Normal criminals come here then demand the dole, free housing, free medicine, free everything. It just means having a hard luck story.

Gang War In Cyprus, Four Dead [ 24 June 2016 ]
QUOTE
Businessman [ dealing in what? ] Phanos Kalopsidiotis, 51, a police officer and his wife, and a foreign national, were killed during a shootout on Thursday night in an Ayia Napa restaurant.

Kalopsidiotis along with five other people, including officer Elias Hadjiefthimiou, 46, his wife Skevi, 39, and their two children were having dinner when two or three gunmen stormed the restaurant at around 10pm and opened fire with pistols and automatic weapons. Three of Kalopsidiotis’ bodyguards were eating at an adjacent table.............

Two other people were injured during the shooting. One of them, also a police officer — MMAD (rapid reaction force) member Giorgos Charalambous — sitting with Kalopsidiotis, was in critical condition in hospital. Police said both officers were off duty at the time. They were carrying their service weapons however.........

The shootout came four years to the day, June 23, 2012, when five men were gunned down on a side street in the heart of Ayia Napa’s nightclub scene, near the popular Red Square bar.
UNQUOTE
You might wonder why a businessman had three armed(?) bodyguards and why armed police were socializing with him. It is an action replay; they missed him last time; it was four years ago to the day. More and better details at http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/06/27/details-emerge-suspected-ayia-napa-shooters-shady-past/

Another Gangland Murder In Ayia Napa
Ayia Napa has its crime industry generating tax free incomes for wonderful people. They get annoyed when things go wrong. The victim this time was Andreas Rodotheou. It is assumed to be connected with the Kalopsidiotis Job. This perpetrator is a better shot; he got a one shot kill and went clear.

Cypriot Murdered In Ayia Napa
Turkish police are unhelpful. The victim is alleged to be "British".

Criminal Who Murdered Crime Boss In Cyprus Was Also Due To Be Bumped Off [ 6 May 2017 ]
They got four kills, including a policeman. Akeks Burreli, one of the attackers was being set up as another victim. He is still out there on the run.

Witness In Cyprus Gang Murders Offered A Bribe [ 10 May 2017 ]
QUOTE
The son of one of the defence lawyers in the trial of the Ayia Napa gangland shooting last June, in which four people were killed, has tried to tamper with a key prosecution witness by offering a bribe in exchange for his silence, it was alleged in court on Monday.

Businessman Theofanis Theofanous ‘Kalopsidiotis’, policeman Ilias Hadjiefthimiou and wife Skevi, as well as Yani Vogli, one of the two shooters, were killed in the attack at the Stone Garden restaurant in Ayia Napa............

He then testified that while he was held at the Lakatamia police station, “before I pled guilty, a certain gentleman approached my parents and offered them €100,000 to keep my mouth shut, have 24-hour protection, secure a not-guilty verdict, and get me another lawyer”.
UNQUOTE
EUR 100K is a useful sum, especially given that is tax free.

Cyprus Captures Three After Gangland Murder [ 24 June 2017 ]
QUOTE
THREE men were remanded in custody for eight days on Friday on suspicion of taking part in a plot to kill an underworld figure last year. Police told the court they have also issued arrest warrants for five more people – four foreign nationals and a Cypriot – in connection with the case.

The three remanded suspects are a 30-year-old Turkish Cypriot, a 35-year-old Greek Cypriot and a 47-year-old Serb who is currently a convict at the central prisons, serving out a sentence for a drugs-related offence.

They are suspected of having played a part in arranging or mediating for the arrival of two Serb hit men, whose target is believed to have been Alexis Mavromichalis, aka ‘Alexoui’.

Chief inspector Marcos Nikolettis told the court that on March 22, 2016, the force had received an urgent message from Belgrade Interpol notifying them of an impending contract killing.

The Serbian authorities had been investigating a crime ring when they found out that a number of its members were in Cyprus plotting a murder.

The court heard that one of the wanted men had contacted an unknown individual in Nicosia’s central prison, who eventually hired him to carry out the contract for €100,000.

The pair had agreed that the man would hire the hit men.

Police said initial investigations showed that the possible target was Alexis Mavromichalis from Nicosia. It also emerged that the contact was Marios Christodoulou, aka Benny, currently doing life in jail for the killing of Phanos Kalopsidiotis and conspiracy to murder Mavromichalis.............

Kalopsidiotis, according to Mavromichalis, considered the pair responsible for his father’s murder in 2014 and a gangland hit in the summer of 2012 that saw five people killed.

Benny worked for Rodotheou and had been arrested in February 2015 in connection with a rocket attack in Nicosia that was meant to take out Mavromichalis but killed his 28-year-old bodyguard instead. The attack followed an incident at the Apoel fan club in which Benny was beaten by Mavromichalis and his men.
UNQUOTE
They can so they do. Sloppy security is what lets them down.

Ayia Napa Massacre Suspects Get Life Sentences [ 11 September 2017 ]
QUOTE
Two men were jailed for life on Friday after being found guilty of the quadruple gangland killing in the popular holiday resort of Ayia Napa [ in Cyprus ] last year.
Panayiotis Pentafkas, 30, and Serbian national Dejan Loy, 42, were found guilty of premeditated murder, a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence. They were handed four life sentences. The pair faced charges in relation with the murders of businessman and suspected underworld figure Phanos Kalopsidiotis and police officer Elias Hadjiefthymiou, 46, and his wife Skevi, 39.

The three were gunned down while having dinner at the Stone Garden restaurant on the evening of June 23. One of the shooters, Albanian Yiani Vogli, was also killed...........

Loy, who worked as Kalopsidiotis’ bodyguard, was accused of collaborating with the shooters by confirming that the victim was at the restaurant shortly before they burst in, guns blazing. He was in the toilet during the shooting. Four other people implicated in the shooting had been sentenced earlier this year and last year after they admitted guilt.
UNQUOTE
They wanted the "businessman". They got him four years to the day after the last try. Why was Kalopsidiotis talking to the police? Why were they armed off duty? We will probably never know.

Drug Dealer Shot Four Times In Cyprus [ 20 November 2017 ]
QUOTE
A 40-year-old man was shot four times outside his Nicosia home on Monday evening, in a case of attempted murder. Panayiotis Panayiotou was shot at around 6:55pm as he exited his car parked outside his home on Riga Fereou street in the Ayios Omologites area of the capital..........

Panayiotou had been injured in another shooting in 2008, when an attempt was made on the life of Alexi Mavromihali (also known as Alexoui), an underworld figure, and Panayiotou was with him. Panayiotou is known to police for drugs related cases and for associating with members of criminal gangs, media reports said.
UNQUOTE
The crime industry in Cyprus seems to be suffering from turmoil recently.

Alleged Brit Murdered In Cyprus [ 6 November 2018 ]
QUOTE
A British promoter has been shot dead on the holiday island of Cyprus. Gary Christodoulou from Walton, Liverpool, was shot several times on Thursday night as he made his way between the resorts of Larnaca and Ayia Napa. The 33-year-old, who was on the island working as a promoter, was found with gunshot wounds to his head and body in an acacia grove - more than 300ft from a ditch where his silver Mercedes had gone off the road. His devastated family believe the father-of-one was gunned down as he tried to flee from the vehicle and believe the killing may have been a case of mistaken identity.
UNQUOTE
In fact he was a Greek Cypriot with a French Passport. Believe the Mail? Not without checking first.

Cyprus Drug Dealer Murdered - Four Prisoners Taken [ 16 November 2018 ]
QUOTE
Famagusta district court on Thursday remanded in custody for eight days the four suspects arrested in connection with the November 1 murder of Gary Boris Christodoulou, found dead with two bullets to his head near the motorway just outside Ayia Napa.............

The four men, aged 27, 36, 44 and 35 have denied any connection to the murder. Famagusta police are investigating a case of conspiracy to murder and the premeditated murder of 33-year-old Christodoulou.......... The post mortem revealed that the victim received four gunshots, two to the head and two to his torso. He was known to police in relation with past drugs cases. The victim was also known to be on friendly terms with Panicos Pentafkas, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the June 2016 gangland shooting at an Ayia Napa restaurant where four people died.............

Police secured testimony according to which this suspect had earlier warned Christodoulou to stop advertising an Ayia Napa nightclub controlled by the Pentafkas family, threatening to kill Christodoulou unless he complied.

According to the same information, on May 15 of this year Christodoulou received a phone call from a number registered to a relative of deceased businessman Theofanis Theofanous, who is believed to have been the target of the June 2016 rubout. [ Witness In Cyprus Gang Murders Offered A Bribe ]

During that phone call, Christodoulou was asked to stop working for Pentafkas’ nightclub, or else.
UNQUOTE
They put the frighteners on, he didn't bottle out so they killed him. The Mail wrote him up as a Brit murdered by mistake. See Alleged Brit Murdered In Cyprus. People were lying.

Cyprus Businessman Not Murdered In Ayia Napa [ 19 February 2020 ]
The gunman shot up a bar after the man had left. What is his business? The police know but they are not telling us. Try prostitution, gambling, extortion or whatever. You just might be wrong. NB A Prisoner Was Taken.

Supreme Court upholds life sentences over Napa gangland shootings [ 11 May 2022 ]
QUOTE
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 2017 decision by the Famagusta criminal court which found two defendants guilty in relation to a quadruple murder committed in Ayia Napa in June 2016.

The case in question was the gangland killing of Ayia Napa businessman [ & racketeer? - Editor] Phanos Kalopsidiotis, which took place at the Stone Garden restaurant in Ayia Napa.

Police officer Elias Hadjiefthimiou and his wife Skevi, were also killed in the shooting.

Kalopsidiotis had been having dinner with the couple and their two young children, as well as riot squad Mmad member Yiorgos Charalambous.

Albanian Yani Vogli, one of the shooters, was also killed. A second Albanian, Aleks Burrelli managed to escape and has never been seen or heard of since.

In a decision dated September 8, 2017, the criminal court had sentenced each of the accused to a life sentence for each of the four victims.

An announcement from the legal service said that the Supreme Court also upheld the convictions and sentences imposed by the criminal court in connection with the attempted murder against two other persons, as well as the charges of conspiracy..................

In June 2020, Kalopsidiotis’ bodyguard Panayiotis Kallitsionis, who was present during the murder, was also gunned down.
UNQUOTE
Was the bodyguard murdered because he betrayed his boss? Didn't he disappear to the loo when the attack went in?

State Land Management Is Deeply Corrupt [ 21 December 2016 ]
Evidence pointing to rampant corruption at the land consolidation department, including blatant conflicts of interest, unlawful transfers of state land to individuals, and decisions by department officials beneficial to relatives or friends, were reported in auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides’ 2015 annual report.

The department’s mission is to strengthen land-use efficiency by aggregating and redistributing privately-owned swathes in designated areas with a view to minimising fragmentation – a key disadvantage in the efficiency of agricultural land.

However, the audit service’s investigations throughout 2015 revealed a number of issues in staff inefficiency, project completion times, and the lack of assessment of completed projects.

Moreover, the report said the Pyrgos project was found to have actually increased fragmentation, instead of reducing it.

“The major goals of the project, for which substantial amounts of money were spent, were not met,” Michaelides said.

“On the contrary, it appears that the actions taken created the right to build a residence for the owners.”

He added that the total area used as farmland after completion of the project – the increase in which was ostensibly one of the key goals – was actually reduced by 87 hectares, relative to that used prior to the redistribution.

Additionally, it was found that large plots owned by one individual were broken down and redistributed in 4,000 square-metre chunks, which is the minimum plot size that allows the construction of a house in land designated as agricultural.

Michaelides said government-owned land was sold to individuals that did not own land within the bounds of the redistribution project, on grounds that they were farmers, at prices much lower than the going rate at the time.

Others, he added, owned land in the designated area and sold it, only to then be sold state-owned plots as farmers.

Digging deeper, the audit service found that some of the people who were sold plots in the Pyrgos redistribution project were connected to redistribution department employees, in a way that “may constitute abuse of power and/or money laundering and/or unjust enrichment”.

“The case on the Pyrgos project is already under criminal investigation by the police,” Michaelides told state radio on Wednesday.

“Relatives or friends of the department’s officials appear to have bought plots in the area earmarked for redistribution shortly before the project was announced, in order to benefit illegally.”

Various explanations put forth by the department’s acting head were “under no circumstances” adopted by the audit service, the report said.

“In essence, they were characterised by a cover-up attitude,” it said. “As a result, our service will investigate the issues that have come up by itself.” In a statement of response, the interior ministry said it has addressed all the issues raised in the report “several times”.

“Therefore, we have no intention of engaging the media and public opinion again, repeating the same responses to the same observations, simply for the sake of maintaining confrontation,” the ministry said.

Nicosia Sewage & Bribery [ 26 January 2017 ]
QUOTE
An ongoing criminal investigation has uncovered strong clues of widespread bribery at the Sewerage Board of Nicosia (SAL), it emerged on Wednesday. The police are said to be wrapping up their probe, and will be forwarding their findings to the attorney-general, who will decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings.

So far, investigators have found evidence implicating at least four individuals, suspected of taking kickbacks from contractors for projects awarded by the sewerage board.

Daily Politis reported that three persons, formerly with SAL, are in the police’s crosshairs: two former members of the board, and a former employee.
UNQUOTE
Business as usual.

Drunk Driver Beats Manslaughter Rap By Corruption [ 24 January 2017 ]
QUOTE
A 29-year-old woman who had been on the top of the island’s most wanted list for years, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to two charges relating to the road death of a 17-year-old boy in Limassol in 2007. Efi Herodotou denied causing Emilios Ioannou’s death through reckless driving and failure to stop at a red light...........

Her parents face charges including fabrication of evidence, forgery, perjury, and bribery. They also denied the charges during the hearing held in the Nicosia district court..............

Herodotou had been acquitted in the first trial in 2009, but state prosecutors preparing for an appeal discovered that evidence submitted in her trial had been forged and tampered with, and at least one defence witness had perjured himself.

During the trial, an eyewitness testified that Herodotou had caused the crash by running a red light, and then fled the scene.

The eyewitness reported chasing after her into a dead-end road, at which point Herodotou asked her to lie to police that the light had been green when she crossed the intersection.........

Once a retrial was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2011, police probes into allegedly falsified evidence submitted in court led to the arrests of the 34-year-old state prosecutor who tried the case and two lawyers who had defended Herodotou. The prosecutor later resigned.

False evidence included witness testimony contradicting the timeline reported by the eyewitness who had chased Herodotou after the accident, which was challenged after prosecutors discovered that the time stamps on the electronic attendance register at the eyewitness’ place of work had been tampered with.

Another witness, who had identified himself in court as the man who had installed the system and knew how it worked turned out to have been an employee of herodotou’s father and had neither installed the system nor had any knowledge of how it worked.

Lastly, the police report prepared by one of the investigators also appeared to have been forged.

Suspicion immediately fell on Herodotou’s parents, who appeared to have been implicated in orchestrating the forgeries by those questioned over the discrepancies, but, like their daughter, they too had vanished.
UNQUOTE
Are they ALL bent?

Cyprus Army Mutinies [ 16 February 2017 ]
Men want more money and less work. These are mercenary soldiers; it shows.

Bent Copper Took A EUR10 Thousand Bung To Make Cocaine Charges Disappear [ 22 March 2017 ]
QUOTE
A drug squad police sergeant has been given a suspended two-year jail sentence after he was found guilty of accepting more than €10,000 in kickbacks to look the other way after he arrested a man in 2012 with 1.5 kilos of cocaine.

The sergeant, Andreas Vryonis, was found guilty on nine of 26 charges. The Larnaca district court however, suspended the sentence, as it took into account as a mitigating factor a letter from the head of the drug squad who said that Vryonis was a “good officer and excellent associate”...........

A disciplinary case for the same offences is pending by the police against Vryonis, who remains suspended
UNQUOTE
He got off very lightly.

Cypriot Corruption Is Alive And Well [ 7 August 2017 ]
She got two years for death by dangerous driving but they got away the extensive Perversion Of The Course Of Justice. Perhaps too many people with friends were involved in the cover up.

Cyprus denies ‘selling’ EU citizenship to rich [ 22 September 2017 ]
'Cyprus' lies. 'It' charges EUR6 million each.

Cyprus Central Bank Governor Pleads Not Guilty To Bribery [ 22 September 2017 ]

Cyprus Land Fraud Extends Far Past Turkish Cypriot Property [ 22 September 2017 ]
So says the mayor of Paphos. NB his two predecessors are in prison. He is keen on staying out.

Cyprus Bankers Guilty Of 330 Million Euro Fraud [ 14 October 2018 ]
They understated their losses and the auditors did not notice. It is all rather like Tesco and Enron's auditors. They were useless too.

Cyprus Mayor Is A Thief [ 13 March 2020 ]
QUOTE
Former Larnaca mayor Andreas Louroudjiatis was jailed for five years on Wednesday after he was found guilty of corruption relating to the operation of two waste management plants in Larnaca and Paphos. Three other defendants were also given custodial sentences ranging between five years and 18 months.
UNQUOTE
The Municipal Secretary is bent as well. Civilization stops at Dover. In fact you might wonder if our lot are any better.

Pakistani Thug Killed Swedish Mother In Cyprus [ 12 May 2022 ]
QUOTE
A British man has appeared in court in Cyprus accused of running down and killing a Swedish mother whilst driving a beach buggy in the holiday party town of Ayia Napa.

Manraj Singh Sidhu, 25, appeared in court in Cyprus this afternoon handcuffed and with his arm in a sling where it was said he was high on drugs when he hit the woman.

He was held after police tracked him down after an appeal for the driver who allegedly killed Camilla Christina Pamdahl in the hit and run before fleeing on foot.

Mrs Pamdahl, 46, suffered multiple injuries after being hit on a pedestrian crossing as Sidhu allegedly overtook a car in the resort of Ayia Napa.

Sidhu, who is from Shefford, Hertfordshire, was held on remand in jail close to the city until his appearance at Famagusta district court today in front of judge Nayia Oikonomou.............

Sidhu.......... was also accused of having no insurance, dangerous driving endangering the public, leaving the scene of an accident, failing to ensure the damaged buggy was identifiable to other road users, fleeing the scene and not informing police........

Camilla, who was on holiday in Cyprus with her five-year-old daughter, was rushed to Famagusta general hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.
UNQUOTE
The Mail chooses to allege that Sidhu is British. I choose to allege that they are lying. NB The Mail is blocking comments because he is an alien parasite.