THE government said yesterday there would be no discrimination in punishing the culprits of the stock market (CSE) scandal as parties continued to wash their hands of any wrongdoing in the affair.
The bitter spat was kicked off following revelations about the involvement of dozens of politicians in the stock market, with some making millions in profits while others came out with a loss.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said there would not be any discrimination and that those who acted in violation of the law would have to be prosecuted and treated accordingly by the Attorney-general.
“As always, the findings and investigating committee reports are sent to the Attorney-general,” Chrysostomides said.
He said the government did what it had to in relation to the findings of the investigating committee and it was now “up to the Attorney-general to reply whether it would be published or not”.
“The government will comply with the Attorney-general’s suggestion,” the spokesman added.
At the same time parties yesterday exchanged barbs concerning the blame for the 1999 scandal.
AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou said his party’s demand was for the CSE scandal to be fully resolved.
“We hear that DISY won’t tolerate a cover-up of the scandal. But when they were in power and Parliament showed them the way to proceed, they were deaf.
“And today they’ve suddenly turned into Hercules, not tolerating a cover-up,” Kyprianou said.
Concerning the potential involvement of AKEL officials, he suggested each case to be examined individually.
“If there are members or deputies of AKEL who invested, I say let each case be examined individually,” the party spokesman said.
European Democracy’s Prodromos Prodromou put the blame squarely on the previous administration, led by DISY, of which he was a member until recently when he was expelled.
“Who’s to blame for the bubble? Who let the people get defrauded when they could have prevented it?” he said.
Prodromou charged that while the securities and exchange commission refused certain companies entry into the CSE, then Finance Minister Takis Klerides had intervened under pressure from politicians to allow them in.
“Why was the company law violated?” he said.
Most of the responsibility belonged to the executive; deputies are not to blame for the bubble, he said.
He went further to slam his former party for setting up a company – a decision he disagreed with — with the sole purpose of trading shares in the CSE.
DISY deputy chairman Socratis Hasikos pointed out that Prodromou’s disagreement with the decision to set up the company was feeble.
“At least DISY did what it did in the open; it didn’t set up front operatives like other parties and politicians,” Hasikos said.
“Didn’t AKEL have any involvement in this?” he added.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades urged those who possessed any evidence to present them and stop beating around the bush.
“I have no intention to bother with those who belong to the main culprits of the CSE crisis and who were publishing a stock market newspaper (at the time),” Anastassiades said.
He added: “Neither I would respond to slander from those who in the past were responsible for the party’s financial policy.”
According to Politis, Prodromou’s newspaper Neos Typos wrote late in August 1999 that after its split, punters would rush to buy the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) share, which was expected to open at £9.
At the end of July of the same year, Prodromou bought 7,000 BoC shares worth £87,300.
The average cost per share was £12.45, Politis said.
Prodromou sold 6,000 shares – out of a total of 14,000 after the split — in October, for £11.25 each, for a total of £67,500, the paper claimed.
And Prodromou was among the overwhelming majority of deputies who voted in favour of exempting the first £35,000 in CSE profits made in 1999 from any taxation and to impose a five per cent tax for anything thereafter.
Only one deputy at the time, DISY’s Katerina Pantelidou, informed her colleagues about her husband’s financial interests and abstained from voting.
