AG confirms investigation into former Co-op boss and others

Attorney-general Costas Clerides confirmed on Wednesday he had ordered an investigation into the Co-op Bank’s former CEO Nicolas Hadjiyiannis and other senior officials over their refusal to hand over loan information to the financial ombudsman.

Speaking in parliament, Clerides confirmed a report in daily Phileleftheros that he had ordered a probe after a complaint filed by Pavlos Ioannou over the co-op’s refusal to hand over information concerning refugee loans.

“Although I don’t usually discuss and give information about cases that are simply being investigated, since I understand this has become public, I could not deny it,” he said.

The paper said Ioannou reported Hadjiyiannis and other senior co-op officials of repeatedly refusing to provide information on certain loans the ombudsman was looking into after complaints from borrowers.

According to the report, Hadjiyiannis especially had refused repeatedly to respond to the verbal appeals of the ombudsman who was forced to close the cases because he could not investigate them properly.

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.