September meeting on CSE debacle

A JOINT session of the House Watchdog and Finance Committees to discuss a draft report on the 1999 stock market (CSE) debacle has been pushed back to September, Finance Committee chairman Aristos Chrysostomou said yesterday.

The meeting had been scheduled for August 30 but then it was postponed to the morning of September 14.

Chrysostomou said a letter has been send to deputies asking them to prepare and submit their views on the draft report.

He said the draft would be amended according to new evidence that emerged from the contacts members of the committees had with the Attorney-general, the justice minister and the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

After the deputies’ positions are recorded, the committees will prepare the final draft that will be submitted to the plenum.

The committees’ report concerns their investigation into the 1999 fiasco, which saw thousands of small investors lose their lifesavings to bubble shares.

They looked into the inflated share prices by companies, which were listed or applied to the CSE, and the “defrauding of investors by companies which applied or were listed on the CSE”.

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