Boc ex-chairman seeks exemption based on ‘double jeopardy’

THE lawyer of former Bank of Cyprus (BoC) chairman Andreas Artemi told the Nicosia Criminal Court on Thursday that he intends to file a motion for his client’s exemption from the trial.

Artemi and four other former BoC officials, as well as the bank as a legal entity, are facing charges of conspiring to manipulate the market by misrepresenting to investors the lender’s capital needs in 2012.

The trial resumes on April 7, when Artemi’s defence lawyer will argue for his client’s exemption on the grounds that he cannot be tried twice for the same offence, or ‘double jeopardy’.

The lawyer will argue that Artemi was previously cleared of all charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) after a probe into market manipulation.

Artemi’s co-defendants are former BoC chairman Theodoros Aristodemou, former CEO Andreas Eliades and his successor Yiannis Kypri, and former first deputy CEO Yiannis Pehlivanides, in charge of the bank’s Greek operations.

In June 2014, CySEC slapped administrative fines on 12 former BoC officials for misleading investors through public statements. The stock market watchdog fined Eliades, Kypri and Aristodemou €530,000 each.

Also before the Criminal Court is a motion by the defendants to dismiss the trial altogether, on the grounds that an appeal is pending before the Supreme Court against the CySEC ruling.

State prosecutor Polina Efthyvoulou in turn argued against the motion to dismiss, noting that the two legal processes are distinct.

The case before the Criminal Court is based on evidence that is not identical to that used by CySEC, she said.

The indictments of BoC officials are the result of a broader police investigation into the causes of the 2013 financial meltdown.

The scope of the probe covers Cypriot banks’ expansion into Greece, corporate governance, the purchase of junk Greek bonds, and how now-defunct Laiki Bank came to amass some €9bn in emergency liquidity, a liability since passed onto BoC.

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