30.04.2023
An independent anti-corruption body has hired a group of internationally accredited lawyers to investigate claims by high-ranking officials in the golden passport scandal.
The previous administration set up an anti-corruption watchdog under President Nikos Anastasiades to investigate “as a matter of priority” allegations that he and cabinet members were involved in the golden passport fiasco. It has been alleged that Anastasiadis ran a corrupt administration under the influence of Russian oligarchs, which was published by his former aide Makarios Drusiotis .
The Authority has now assigned the matter to two British lawyers who previously represented EU governments in international courtrooms and had nothing to do with the island’s now defunct citizenship by investment scheme. They will be joined by three Cypriot lawyers or auditors not involved in the scheme.
British lawyers are preparing a list of people to be questioned as part of the investigation. The team will prioritize the allegations leveled against Anastasiadis by opposition AKEL MP Christos Christofides , combined with the findings of Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides .
The first complaint against the former president concerns an alleged conflict of interest, whose law firms offered services to dodgy investors seeking a golden passport.
In August, the Auditor General released a report on the defunct citizenship by investment scheme, calling it “rotten” to the core. Michaelides said certain actions by government officials could constitute crimes. The almost 200-page dossier contained the results of an investigation into 3,517 cases of foreign investors who obtained citizenship under the golden passport scheme, noting that the actions of officials, including the cabinet, have deprived the state of significant revenues.
Christofides claimed that 353 passports were issued to clients of law firms owned by or associated with the former president or members of the cabinet. The AKEL MP also accused Anastasiades of using his position as president to benefit family members.
According to the second complaint , filed by Christofides , the passport was issued to a Russian investor who owns a banking institution located in a building in Limassol , allegedly purchased from the former president’s son-in-law.
Drousiotis , who served as an adviser to Anastasiades from March 2013 to October 2014, wrote a trilogy about alleged cases of presidential corruption. The first book in the Gang trilogy tells how, during the banking crisis of 2013, the political elite rejected bailouts from Europe to protect the interests of the Kremlin. His second book, Crime in Crans -Montana, tells how President Anastasiades allegedly withdrew from the 2017 negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus.
Anastasiades said in a November interview that he was considering filing a defamation case. “I have never done anything without being accused of trying to silence the press,” he said.
The citizenship program was terminated in November 2020 after an undercover video by Al Jazeera was shown as House Speaker Demetris Syllouris of the time and AKEL MP Christakis The Jovanis offer to help a fictitious Chinese businessman with a criminal record to obtain citizenship.
A public inquiry found that the government broke the law countless times by granting citizenship to more than 6,700 people between 2007 and 2020. More than half (53%) of the 6,779 issued passports were illegally issued, encouraged by a lack of due diligence or insufficient background checks.
The Cyprus passport scheme has brought in more than 8 billion euros during its existence.
