LARNACA district court on Tuesday remanded in police custody three men on suspicion of committing fraud and bribery in connection with a multimillion land deal involving state telecoms company CyTA.
The suspects are two police sergeants, Costas Miamiliotis, 40, and Lefteris Mouskos, 53, members of the secret service and 42-year-old businessman Nicos Lillis.
Lillis is a shareholder in Wadnic Trading Ltd, the company which purchased the land in 2007, and also the chairman of Alki football club.
The officers – already suspended from duty – are suspected of drafting a false report that enabled the sale of the land, which belonged to a Turkish Cypriot.
The businessman, Nicos Lillis, is suspected of bribing the two officers to draft a favourable report.
The two officers allegedly produced a report saying the Turkish Cypriot seller had resided in the government-controlled areas for six months – a necessary condition — prior to selling the land.
Detectives have traced two cheques – one for €10,000, the other €40,000 – made out to the two officers by Lillis.
An arrest warrant has meanwhile been issued for another former secret service officer, believed to be abroad.
The land in Dromolaxia, Larnaca, was sold to a Greek Cypriot businessman who allegedly changed its terms of use, upgraded the coefficients, built on it and sold it on to the CyTA pension fund, at several times the price he bought it from the original owner.
The three suspects appearing in court yesterday face a host of charges, including: conspiracy to defraud; engaging in fraudulent transactions on real estate property belonging to a third person; corruption of a public functionary; bribery; and legitimizing ill-gotten gains.
The alleged offences in question took place between 2007 and July 18 of this year in the Larnaca, Famagusta and Nicosia districts, police said.
Authorities began looking into the land deal in Dromolaxia in the wake of allegations made before a panel of inquiry, which is still ongoing.
The arrests largely hinge on the testimony provided to the committee by businessman Charalambos Liotatis, formerly connected to Wadnic Trading Ltd, the company which bought the land plot in 2007.
The panel heard how the Turkish Cypriot owner of the land had obtained papers certifying he resided in Dheryneia, where he supposedly worked as a confectioner.
Liotatis has implicated an MP and a senior CyTA official, whom the company allegedly bribed to the tune of €1.0 million each, as well as two major unions that allegedly were to receive €500,000 to grease the deal. Wadnic Trading has denied all claims.
The businessman claims also that he and Lillis once met with Neoclis Sylikiotis, the interior minister and custodian of Turkish Cypriot properties at the time in question.
