DISY President Nicos Anastassiades yesterday hit back at accusations made against him,
calling them “slander’ and distractions aimed at turning the peoples’ attention away from real scandals.
The story broke after the chairman of the House Finance Committee, Aristos Chrysostomou of DIKO, said after a joint meeting of the Watchdog and Finance Committees examining the 1999 stock marked bubble that a deputy had used a false name for a transaction on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE).
Media reports later linked Anastassiades to the allegation.
During a news conference yesterday, the DISY leader gave journalists a 24-page document containing copies of his bank records and investment reports. “With regret, I respond to the allegations made after yesterday’s meeting of the Watchdog and Finance Committees and the comments of the President of Finance Committee, Aris Chrysostomou.
“My name was reported for the first time to all members of parliament, higher officials as well as the media on July 11, 2004, (in connection with stock market transactions) by someone named Georgos Georgiou and so most members of parliament knew about these alleged events before yesterday’s release.”
The accusations were then revealed in the weekly satirical newspaper To Pontiki. He added that the paper had later released a statement exonerating him after he had sent them his bank and account details.
“In July 1999, just like thousands of others around Cyprus, I believed that the stock market was a safe place for future investment. For that reason, I joined the financial company of the National Bank of Greece, Ethnoependitis.”
Anastassiades went on to say how he had later written a letter to the investment company because of an error that he spotted in his name.
“In December 2000, I noticed that in one of the account balance sheets sent to me, there was a mistake in the way may name was written. Instead of writing Nicos Chrysanthou Anastassiades, it wrote Nicos Chrysanthou.
As soon as the Christmas holidays finished and more specifically on January 10, 2001, I sent a letter to the manager of Ethnoependitis, informing him of the mistake in my name and further asking the bank to correct it.”
The president of DISY went on to say how another mistake had been made in a bank statement on April 30 this year with the name on the account being Nicos Chrysanthou Chrysanthou. Anastassiades pointed out, however, that his account number and ID number remained the same in that particular document.
Anastassiades then turned his attention towards those accusing him of financial malpractice, after allegations that he had invested between £700,000 and £800,000: “Some individuals during yesterday’s meeting mentioned certain sums to try and create turbulence. I therefore present to the public an analytical report of my investment account during my entire involvement in the CSE. You will also see upon looking at the report that my buying total does not exceed £375,000. Also noted are the sales in my account which come to £302.000.”
Anastassiades ended by asking: “What else other than mudslinging, hitting below the belt and slander can this accusation be? I would like to reiterate once more, as one of the victims of the crimes of the stock exchange, that I will not tolerate any kind of attempts by various people involved in the stock exchange scandal to wrongly accuse me.”
Anastassiades’ claims that this was a smokescreen were dismissed by Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides.
“We are disappointed and we also find it unacceptable that he would combine his own personal activities in the stock exchange with other issues such as the Health Minister, the Attorney-general issue and the comments of the President of the Republic.”
Chrysostomides added that the government would not comment on the personal issues of Anastassiades.
Meanwhile, Chrysostomou yesterday sought to play down the issue.
“I did not even know that the individual in question was Nicos Anastassiades,” he told reporters.
