More charges against Suphire boss

HIGH-PROFILE stockbroker Yiannos Andronikou was in court again yesterday charged with concealing shares and defrauding the public out of shares purchased with money from the Forestry Department provident fund.

Yesterday, a calm Andronikou appeared at the Nicosia District Court where he informed Judge Angelos David that he understood the 60 charges against him related to the missing shares from the provident fund of the forestry department.

According to the indictment, Andronikou and his company Suphire Financial Services Ltd, had bought shares with the money from the fund but had not returned all the shares back to the account back on October 2, 2001.

Police say a total of 58,389 shares belonging to CSE registered companies LGDC and PBDA were not returned to the account when the purchase of shares was made.

The shares, which investigators say were concealed by Andronikou and that were not returned, are believed to be worth around £200,000.

Judge David yesterday ordered that Andronikou appear before the Nicosia Criminal Court on March 3 to answer the charges against him.

Meanwhile, Andronikou is also at the centre of another case involving the embezzlement of millions of pounds from the Electricity Authority’s pension fund.

Andronikou and his wife, Rea, are facing charges of felony, theft, falsifying accounts and concealment.

The case came to light back in February 2005 when it emerged that Andronikou’s reports on the status of the special investment account linked to the pension fund greatly deviated from official transaction reports from the stock exchange.