‘Millionaire businessman to remain behind bars until mitigation hearing’
HIGH-PROFILE stockbroker Yiannos Andronikou was yesterday found guilty by a Nicosia Criminal Court of stealing around £4.8 million from the Electricity Authority (EAC) pension fund.
Meanwhile Andronikou’s wife Rea – who is the co-owner of the company Suphire Securities & Financial Services and facing similar charges – was yesterday acquitted
The couple and his company had originally faced 28 charges of theft, falsifying accounts and concealment but during a hearing on June 29, the majority of the three-judge panel ruled that there was a prima facie case against the defendants on six out of the 28 charges which had to do with the theft of the millions of pounds.
The EAC had discovered a discrepancy in the fund on the last day of 2004 during an internal audit that found that official stock market figures on the fund’s portfolio for the year did not correspond to those provided by Suphire.
It was later revealed that the Suphire boss had Andronikou had invested the vast amounts from the pension fund in shares on the stock market.
According to the indictment, the multimillionaire businessman stood accused of concealing a crime and stealing around £4.5 million from the EAC pension fund back in 2005.
Yesterday’s court decision, which saw Judges Lena Demetriadou and Eleni Efrem rule a verdict of guilty in contrast to Judge Yiasemi Yiasemis verdict of innocent, also means that Andronikou will remain behind bars until the mitigation hearing which is set to take place on October 12.
The judges, who also accepted the state prosecutor Paula Efthyvoulou’s request to confiscate Suphire assets, yesterday began reading their final decisions at 9am and didn’t finish until 2.30pm. The court decisions of the judges totaled 177 pages.
Yesterday, the court decision of Judges Efrem and Demetriadou read that “It is obvious to the court that accused company moved funds from the pension fund of the EAC, which were in a client account, and placed into the overdraft account – blending the money with the existing funds – which was used to pay expenses of the company
“Those actions by the second defendant (Andronikou), who knew all too well that it was the property of the EAC pension fund…It has therefore been proven that the defendant both stole the money and then covered his tracks”.
After hearing yesterday’s decision, an impassive Andronikou exited the packed courtroom along with his defence team.
Andronikou could be jailed for as much as six years although his defence is likely to appeal the decision.
