Cyprus president has invited overseas specialists to assist with Russian sanction evasion investigations
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The president of Cyprus stated Monday he personally requested an unnamed “third country” to ship an skilled group of monetary crime specialists to assist the east Mediterranean island nation with investigations into outdated and new allegations that Cypriot monetary service suppliers helped Russian oligarchs skirt worldwide sanctions.
President Nikos Christodoulides advised The Associated Press in an interview that he needs “absolutely no shadows” solid over the European Union member nation as a result of any antagonistic publicity would harm efforts to draw “quality” overseas funding.
The president stated “many” probes into alleged sanctions evasion are presently operating however wouldn’t give particulars.
His request was accepted, and the overseas specialists will help a group of seven police investigators in sifting by outdated and new media experiences alleging that Cyprus-based attorneys and accountants shifted Russian oligarchs’ cash by a murky community of corporations and trusts with a view to keep away from their seizure in keeping with sanctions associated to Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.
The newest allegations got here in a number of tales printed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists final week. They cited leaked paperwork claiming to indicate how some Cypriot corporations helped Russian oligarchs transfer their cash round to evade sanctions.
Christodoulides stated the overseas specialists would help their counterparts in how one can higher conduct their investigations whereas expediting the method to indicate that “Cyprus has zero tolerance for corruption” and bolster the sense domestically that justice is being finished.
“Our aim is exactly so that there are neither insinuations or any shadows cast over our country’s name,” he stated.
He stated a cornerstone of his drive to rid the island of its ill-gotten repute is organising a Single Supervisory Authority, an unbiased physique of monetary crime specialists tasked with cracking down on any monetary malfeasance or sanctions evasion.
A draft regulation has been readied for parliamentary debate and approval.
Christodoulides additionally stated extra specialists with a authorized or accounting background might be employed to strengthen the police’s monetary crimes unit.
He defended Cyprus’ monitor report in efforts to get its banking sector so as since 2013, when the nation wanted a multibillion-euro bailout from its EU companions and the International Monetary Fund to climate a monetary disaster that introduced it to the brink of chapter.
At the time, practically a 3rd of the nation’s 68 billion euros in deposits – greater than triple the complete financial system – was held by Russians, feeding the notion that Cyprus was Moscow’s monetary lackey.
Christodoulides conceded it might take time for Cyprus to rebrand itself as a primary funding alternative.
“For me, whichever allegation, either big or small, is an allegation against our country, which I cannot accept because it negatively affects our ability to attract private investment,” Christodoulides stated. He added that nations from “the wider Middle East” have proven curiosity in investing in Cyprus within the fields of power, well being providers, schooling and knowledge know-how.
In the interview, he additionally mentioned his nation’s proposal for a humanitarian hall to Gaza.
Separately, Christodoulides stated U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will very quickly notify the Cypriot authorities of his new alternative for an envoy who might be tasked with exploring the prospect of resuming talks to reunify the ethnically divided nation which have been in stalemate since 2017.
Guterres’ earlier alternative for envoy was reportedly rejected by the chief of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, Ersin Tatar. Cyprus was cut up alongside ethnic traces in 1974 when Turkey invaded within the wake of a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
