A FORMER close associate of Tassos Papadopoulos insisted yesterday he had no personal relations with a Yugoslav national subsequently identified as a key player in sanctions-busting during the 1990s, but admitted he was friends with the woman known as Slobodan Milosevic’s banker.
Pambos Ioannides was testifying in court in the case of Tassos Papadopoulos and Co vs the Financial Times.
It was the fourth hearing in a libel case brought by Papadopoulos against the paper for reporting in 2002 that his law firm had close ties with companies suspected of siphoning money abroad.
Ioannides, now managing partner with the law office, was cross-examined by the FT’s chief lawyer Pavlos Angelides.
Testifying in an earlier hearing, Ioannides had said he did not recall one Zoran Markovic, the executive director of Beogradska Banka, a state-owned Yugoslav bank.
He had also verified a document he signed in January 1995 instructing the Popular Bank to pay Markovic 7 million DEM (Deutschmarks) in cash.
A UN investigation into war crimes perpetrated in Yugoslavia named Markovic as one of the cash couriers, bringing suitcases filled with hard currency to Cyprus on numerous occasions.
Ioannides again denied being personally acquainted to Markovic yesterday, but conceded that he attended a funeral in Belgrade where the former was proven to be present.
The funeral was of the husband of Borka Vucic, one-time head of Beogradska Banka COBU, the offshore branch of the eponymous Yugoslav bank, and a close associate of then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ioannides admitted he was friends with Vucic, “through their business together”.
“But you did not know Mr Markovic, even though he was a high-ranking officer at Beogradska? You expect us to believe that?” pursued the FT lawyer.
“I knew a lot of people, I had a lot of connections, but I don’t specifically recall the man,” said Ioannides.
Angelides next quizzed the witness about Antexol Trade Ltd, an offshore company registered by the Tassos Papadopoulos office.
Antexol was one of eight offshore companies mentioned in a report by Morten Torkildsen, a special prosecutor for the International Criminal Court probing human rights crimes in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Since it was an offshore company, its real owners or beneficiaries could not be Cypriots. The Tassos Papadopoulos law firm were acting as the nominee shareholders and directors, one of whom was Ioannides.
Grilled by Angelides, Ioannides said he was not aware of the nature of Antexol’s business.
The court heard how Antexol was established in the name of Mrs Ljiljana Radenkovic, who at the time was working in London for an Anglo-Yugoslav bank. She had never heard of Antexol and had no idea she was the company’s owner until years later.
Angelides was trying to demonstrate that Antexol was a front.
Antexol was struck off the company registrar’s record in August of 2003 as a defunct company, just months before a hearing in a different case in November of the same year.
“And did you receive instructions from a Mrs Budicin [subsequent owner of Antexol] to close down the company?” asked Angelides.
“In 2003, did you receive instructions from her to relinquish her rights to Beogradska, and do you have any documentation to that effect?”
Ioannides said he did not have any such documents in his possession, suggesting that the FT lawyer should obtain them from the Central Bank.
“We have checked with the Central Bank, sir, but found nothing. And you know why? Because they were covering your tracks,” asserted Angelides.
“So you had no clue about Antexol’s affairs. Then how can you be sure they were not engaging in illegal activities? Did they purchase foodstuffs, arms… what?”
“Foodstuffs perhaps, but arms no,” replied Ioannides.
Angelides then produced a number of credit orders, dating to 1997, issued by offshore companies registered by the Tassos Papadopoulos law firm.
The documents instructed the Popular Bank to transfer various amounts (in US dollars or DEM) to accounts in Turkish banks in Istanbul.
The transfers were made via a bank in Germany. Some of the credit orders bear the signature of Marios Eliades, a partner in the Tassos Papadopoulos law office at the time.
“Why did you make payments to Turkish banks? Were you by any chance financing Attila [the occupying forces]? Did you bother to check where the money ended up?”
Ioannides said it was not their responsibility to check, since they were acting on their clients’ instructions. In any case, he added, wire transfers to Turkish banks were “not unusual” back then as today.
The banter between the lawyer and witness then strayed from the subject-matter and into politics.
“Mr Ioannides, in 2004 President Tassos Papadopoulos called nenekous [traitors] those who backed the Annan plan. Now that I am showing you financial documents of shady dealings with Turkish interests, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“This is politics and has nothing to do with case. You are playing to the journalists in the courtroom,” replied a defiant Ioannides.
The trial resumes today.
