THE executive chairman of a subsidiary company of CYTA is under investigation for allegedly violating company regulations when he sold so-easy SIM cards to third parties without first securing approval from his board members.
Furthermore the executive chairman, who is also a board member of CYTA, allegedly made cash payments of €300,000 to CYTA for the pre-paid phone cards instead of making those payments through bank transfers.
The transactions eventually came to the attention of CYTA chairman Stathis Kittis who informed both President Demetris Christofias and the Attorney-general Petros Clerides. It is thought Kittis, who has gathered a file on the matter, wants a criminal investigation launched.
According to Politis newspaper the subsidiary company in question is Emporion Plaza Ltd.
Apparently the executive chairman of Emporion Plaza violated company regulations when he went ahead with commercial activities with private companies regarding the sale of pre-paid phone cards without first securing approval from his board of directors.
Emporion Plaza bought the SIM cards at a good price and then sold it on to third parties for a profit of 0.5 per cent while the third party made a profit of nine per cent.
The second violation involved the way the payments were made to CYTA from the subsidiary company. Instead of using bank transfers, Emporion Plaza made cash payments, which violates Central Bank regulations that stipulate any transactions over €10,000 need to be made through bank transfers to avoid money laundering.
Two days ago CYTA issued a statement, without naming the executive chairman involved, and said it was investigating the matter. The statement did not rule out a possible criminal investigation. The statement said Kittis had instructed an internal investigation into the matter which would be examined at an extraordinary board meeting.
“The government, the competent ministry, and the Attorney-general’s office have been informed about the matter. Simultaneously CYTA is prepared to hand over all the evidence from the internal investigation for further investigation by the state’s competent authorities on such issues. CYTA’s board is determined to do whatever is necessary to shed light on this case with the smooth operation of the organisation as the main aim,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, CYTA’s board of directors will convene to address the issue and to discuss whether to go ahead and report it to police. Rumour has it that tempers are set to flare as directors have taken sides with either Kittis or the executive chairman.
According to press reports there are a number of differing opinions about how to handle the situation. Some board members have said there is no need to launch a police investigation into the issue after the executive chairman explained his actions, while other members are backing Kittis and want the matter fully cleared up.
