SEC working with US authorities over Millennium investigation

SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief Marios Clerides yesterday confirmed that Cyprus was co-operating with an American SEC investigation into a company named Millennium Financial Services, in which Cyprus-based investors have reportedly lost several million pounds.

Clerides told the Cyprus Mail they had received a number of complaints from Millennium investors in Cyprus six months ago, which he had passed on to the American SEC. “For around six months, we didn’t hear anything and now they have come back to us seeking more information,” he said. He refused to say, however, whether the complaints had come from Cypriots or from foreigners living in Cyprus, or to divulge how much money was involved.

However, reports said yesterday that the small number of investors involved had lost around one to two million pounds with the company. “The American SEC is now conducting a big investigation and have asked us for more information,” Clerides said. “There might even be other countries involved.”

According to reports yesterday, US authorities were looking into complaints from 150 investors in 20 countries, including the UK and Ireland, and to a lesser extent France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.