BROKE investors in a company that failed to enter the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) were yesterday assured that they would get their money back by the end of April.
About 30 investors in MaxDATA Holdings Ltd stormed the company’s offices in Strovolos yesterday for the second day in a row, demanding back money they had invested in the firm last year.
The company began preparations to enter the CSE early in 2000. It was ordered to return investors’ money after its entry was delayed and issued cheques to pay back the money. But about 100 investors claim that their cheques bounced.
After a meeting yesterday with DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis and party hopeful for the May elections Yiannakis Ioannou, the company’s owner, Andreas Athanassiou, promised investors that they would have their money back by the end of the month.
But the investors and Matsakis allege the company has repeatedly refused to return the money in the past when asked to do so.
One investor told the Cyprus Mail that many investors were financially ruined and that some were even on the verge of committing suicide.
“Some people have lost over £300,000. Many families have broken up and some people have lost their houses and cars because they could not pay their debts otherwise. One man might die as he is sick and can’t take the pressure,” he said.
Athanassiou said that the company was not obliged to return investors’ money until a financial problem — its bank accounts have been frozen — was resolved.
“We haven’t issued shares to anyone,” he said. “Seventeen share packages had been given out to companies in return for loans. But they went behind our back and sold the shares to other people.”
Athanassiou said that half of the people who bought shares had got their money back and that the other half would get their money – about £2.5 million — by the end of April.
But some investors insisted they had bought shares issued by the company. One investor showed media a receipt for shares signed by someone he claimed was Athanassiou.
Athanassiou said that some companies’ associates had taken out millions of pounds in local and oversees loans in maxDATA’s name, pretending to be company directors.
“Then they tried to run off with the money,” he alleged.
Athanassiou dismissed claims that cheques the company had issued to investors had not been honoured: “They didn’t bounce: our accounts were frozen by the Attorney-general’s Office which is investigating the missing money case.”
The company was not obliged to pay back investors until the company’s accounts were unfrozen, Athanassiou said, adding that “I have personally made efforts to ensure they get their money”.
But Matsakis said he doubted whether the money would be refunded by the end of April.
“If those investors get their money back by the end of the month I will admit I am a Martian,” the outspoken MP said.
Some investors asked Matsakis whether it would be a good idea to take the law in their hands and he replied: “That would be a good idea.” He did not elaborate.
Matsakis complained that the government was doing nothing to protect investors’ rights. “I rang the Attorney-general’s office three times between 12 noon and 1pm and no one answered the phone,” he complained. “This is a banana state. Why should it need a legal service?”
Responding to Matsakis’ accusations, Attorney-general Alecos Markides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “For God’s sake! It’s Holy Thursday. We left a little bit earlier. I was there until 1.30 anyway.”
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.
