Our View: Imperative to tackle damaging allegations of money laundering

THE ALLEGATIONS of money laundering that have featured prominently in the German press recently and have been taken up by German politicians should not be ignored or dismissed lightly, because if they are not dealt with in an effective way, they could put at risk Cyprus’ future as an international financial centre.
It would be a grave error to allow the final memorandum of understanding to go for approval to the Bundestag, without these allegations having been proved unfounded. Responding with similar allegations against Germany, as some politicians have done, or claiming that Germany wants to take our Russian clients might satisfy local opinion, but it will not achieve anything.
We must recognise there is an unequal relationship between the two countries, as it is Cyprus that is seeking financial aid from Germany and not the other way round. It is therefore up to Cyprus to convince German politicians that their taxpayers’ money would not be used to assist money-laundering or tax evasion.
For this, we urgently need some kind of strategy. Last week’s meeting of a delegation of technocrats, headed by the finance minister, with EU ambassadors was a step in the right direction. The head of MOKAS, the anti-money laundering unit, explained all the measures that were being taken against money laundering to the ambassadors, while representatives of the Central Bank spoke of the checks being carried out on the banks.
The truth is that a lot more needs to be done because we have a reputation for money laundering, dating since the ’90s, when the Milosevic millions were being brought to Cyprus. The negative publicity Cyprus received from this and the subsequent trial at The Hague tribunal is still remembered. We may have passed all the anti-laundering legislation we had to in the meantime, and the authorities may be carrying out all the necessary checks, but the bad reputation has stuck.
This is why we need a broad strategy for countering the negative publicity and the reputation for money laundering. The government may need to seek the advice of international communications experts and employ the services of lobbyists in an effort to persuade opinion-formers in EU countries, particularly in Germany, that we have cleaned up our act, tightened legislation and exercised more stringent controls on banks.
It goes without saying that, before we promote this image, the authorities ensure the laws were being enforced and any pending bills were approved.
We would then be in a position to deny all the allegations and implement a strategy to rebuild the tarnished reputation that we have acquired since the ’90s.
 

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.