By Angelos Anastasiou
THE defence lawyers of the five former Bank of Cyprus (BoC) senior officials who are facing trial on charges of market manipulation and misleading investors as to the lender’s capital needs in 2012 told the court on Friday that they plan to file pretrial objections.
The five ex officials – former board chairmen Theodoros Aristodemou and Andreas Artemis, former chief executives Andreas Eliades and Yiannis Kypri, and former deputy managing director Yiannis Pehlivanides who was in charge of Greek operations – as well as the bank itself were brought up on charges by the Auditor General, as a result of police investigations into the reasons for the collapse of Cyprus’ banking sector and economy in March 2013.
Specifically, the prosecution argued that between June 16 and 19, 2012, the defendants failed to disclose that the lender’s capital needs far exceeded the amount of €200m, which had been announced on May 10, 2012, and purposely misled investors to believe the contrary.
During Friday’s hearing, defence lawyers asked for details relating to the charges and the available evidence, because they plan to file pretrial objections.
They substantiated their intention by citing the principle of ‘double jeopardy’, meaning that defendants may not stand trial for the same offence twice.
The defence argued that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) had already imposed administrative fines for the same offences on all defendants, with the exception of Artemi, who had been cleared of all charges.
They also plan to file an objection citing abuse of process, since the defendants have appealed the CySEC decision with the Supreme Court, which is currently pending.
In light of these developments, the court adjourned until March 18, when it is expected to call on the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges facing them.
The charge-sheet includes 33 prosecution witnesses, including former Finance minister and bank official Vasos Shiarly, former deputy governor of the Central Bank Spyros Stavrinakis, and various other Bank of Cyprus and central bank officials.
The defendants were released under restrictions.
Aristodemou, Artemis, Eliades and Kypri were released on €400,000 bail, handed in their travel documents and were placed on the stop-list, while Pehlivanides – a Greece resident – was released on €500,000 bail, but did not hand in his travel documents or see his name on the stop-list.
