By Sofia Kannas
THE CYPRUS Investors’ Association yesterday made public the results of a criminal investigation by the Attorney-general office, implicating presidential candidate Tassos Papadopoulos in a company accused of defrauding investors of millions of pounds.
But Papadopoulos’ campaign team dismissed the allegations as pre-electoral mud-slinging, saying their candidate had nothing to hide.
The contents of the report, which was completed and submitted to the Attorney-general’s office on December 16 last year, were revealed at a news conference yesterday.
The President of the Investor’s Association Demetris Hadjipapas said investigations into Claridge Investments Ltd. had been carried out over a 15-month period, examining suspicions that 12 company members, including board member Papadopoulos, were guilty of defrauding investors.
“Shares in the company were deliberately split in order to allow major shareholders the opportunity to sell shares to the public and make financial gains at the investing public’s expense,” Hadjipapas said.
He added it was “unthinkable” for a presidential candidate to be suspected of committing a series of serious criminal offences connected to the CSE scandal.
“How can we continue investigations if he becomes President of the Republic?” he asked.
The criminal investigation report itself was damning of the 14 suspects accused of defrauding the public:
“We (the criminal investigators) agree with the view of the investors that this is a case of a premeditated trap which led to the defrauding of the investing public as well as developments in the Cyprus stock market.”
The Association’s Secretary-general Pantelis Nicolaides told the Cyprus Mail the report clearly implied there was a conspiracy on the part of major shareholders and board members.
“The case now goes to the Attorney-general, and our question is what are they going to do about the suspects, including Tassos Papadopoulos? It would be strange if he was elected on Sunday facing these charges.”
The suspects, 14 in total, have not yet been questioned about the alleged splitting of shares, pending instructions from the Attorney-general.
Nicolaides said the Association had sent a letter to Deputy Attorney-general Petros Clerides voicing their concern over the case.
“We sent him a letter yesterday but we haven’t had a response yet. We will await one.”
Clerides yesterday said he was unfamiliar with the report and the investigations carried out.
“I am not aware of the case,” he said.
Meanwhile, presidential candidate and Attorney-general Alecos Markides defended suggestions that the report should have been made public sooner.
“It was impossible to process the findings of the investigation in a few days, especially with the Christmas and New Year holidays. And I was not involved in the legal service after January 4.”
Markides also played down Papadopoulos’ alleged involvement in the case.
“Personally, I never thought this investigation concerned Mr Papadopoulos himself… I knew he was the legal advisor for the company in question but it has not been established that he actually sold shares during the critical period.”
Responding to the allegations in a statement yesterday, Papadopoulos’ spokesman Marios Karoyian said the announcement by the Association was an example of “pre-election mud slinging.”
Karoyian defended the presidential candidate, saying: “Mr Papadopoulos has nothing to fear and nothing to hide… He has answered questions in detail on this subject and has made it clear that he has not sold any Claridge shares.”
But the Chairman of the House Watchdog Committee, Christos Pourgourides, suggested that it didn’t matter whether Papadopoulos sold shares or not.
“If Mr Papadopoullos has or hasn’t sold any shares personally has no relevance whatsoever.
“Friends and associates on the Board and companies of friends and relatives of his wife have sold shares and have allegedly defrauded the public,” he said in a statement.
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.
