‘BoC six’ face new charges for buying toxic Greek bonds

By Angelos Anastasiou

A NEW court case against the Bank of Cyprus and six of its former board members has been filed by the Legal Service in connection with the purchase of high-risk Greek government bonds by the bank.

According to sources cited by the Cyprus News Agency, the hearing will start on October 29.

The six former executives accused are CEO Andreas Eliades, his deputy Yiannis Kypri, vice-chairman Andreas Artemis, and board members Yiorgos Georgiades, Costas Severis, and Costas Hadjipapas.

In addition to members of the board, all the defendants were also on the bank’s risk-management committee.

Five of the defendants are facing four charges relating to market manipulation in connection with the bank’s investments in Greek government bonds. The sixth, Eliades, is facing two additional ones relating to perjury before the investigation committee for the economy.

The case builds on a Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) report from June 2014, which found that the bank had failed to inform shareholders of the risk its investments carried.

In the report, CySEC had announced unprecedented fines for the BoC and former officials, as well as Laiki Bank and former officials, for misleading investors on their holdings in Greek sovereign bonds and poor corporate governance.

Eliades, Artemis, Kypri and the BoC are already on trial in a case involving misleading investors on the same matter.

Asked to comment on the new case filed, Attorney-general Costas Clerides said that, while investigation of both cases relating to the BoC was based on the CySEC report, the police conducted a full and diligent investigation of both cases from scratch.

“The two cases may relate to offences connected to the CySEC’s mandate – share price manipulation, and so on – but investigations were not confined to the commission’s report,” the AG said.

“It took – it always takes – police investigation based on criminal procedure, with comprehensive statements from several witnesses, with obtaining the necessary evidence, evaluating them, and filing a criminal case.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.