Cyprus
President's Family Transferred Tens Of Millions To London Days Before
Deposit Haircuts
31
March, 2013
A
day after former Cypriot President Vassilou was found to be among
many elite Cypriot (politicians and businessmen) who had
loans written-off by the major (now insolvent) banks;
it appears the rot is far fouler than expected. In a somewhat
stunning (or purely coincidental) revelation, ENETEnglish
reports that
Cypriot newspaper Haravgi claims that current
President Nicos Anastasiades' family businesses transferred 'dozens
of millions' from their Laiki Bank accounts to London just a week
before the devastating depositor haircuts were unleashed upon his
people.
Of course, the denials are loud and Anastasiades has demanded an
investigation into the claims; we are sure the government-selected
'independent' committee will be as thorough as the Libor anti-trust
investigators.
As
a reminder, as we
noted yesterday,
here are Cyprus' gun control laws.
A company owned by in-laws of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades withdrew dozens of millions from Laiki Bank on March 12 and 13, according to an article published in Cypriot newspaper Haravgi.
The newspaper, which is affiliated to the communist-rooted AKEL party, reports that three days before the Eurogroup meeting the company took five promissory notes worth €21m from Laiki Bank and transferred the money to London.
Responding to the allegations, Anastasiades said: “The attempt to defame companies or people linked to my family… is nothing but an attempt to distract people from the liability of those who led the country to a state of bankruptcy.”
The president added that no one, including himself, will be exempt from the ongoing investigations looking into responsibilities over the near collapse of the economy.
Anastasiades added that when the investigative committee convenes on Tuesday, he will request that its members look into this particular case with the same attentiveness as all other cases.
The company in question has firmly denied the reports.
Last Friday a list of companies and politicians that had loans written off by banks at the heart of Cyprus' bailout crisis was published in Greece and was subsequently handed to the Cypriot parliament's ethics committee. The list includes the names of politicians from Cyprus' biggest parties (excluding the socialist EDEK and the Greens).
Russian
Businessman Says He Was Offered Chance To Smuggle €1 Million Out Of
A Cypriot Bank For A €200,000 Fee
31
March, 2013
Well,
this might be our first market quote of how much a “Cypriot Euro”
is worth.
Remember,
last week after large depositors in Cyprus were haircutted, and the
government instituted capital controls to prevent money from fleeing,
a number of economists argued that Cyprus essentially had its own
currency the Cypriot Euro.
If
you can’t easily move your money out of a Cypriot bank account,
then said euros are worth less than the same nominal account in, say,
a German bank.
So
how much less is a Cypriot Euro worth than a regular euro? Maybe 20%
less
From
Peter Spiegel at FT:
Sergei
Tyulenev, a Russian businessman, says he received a call on Thursday
– the day the capital controls were implemented – from Cypriots
he did not wish to identify offering to help him move what he implied
was more than €1m out of a collapsing local bank.
…
There
was a catch though, on top of the illegality of the move. “They
said I had to pay €200,000 up front. I refused,” said Mr
Tyulenev, speaking from Limassol, a town dubbed “Limassolgrad”
for its high proportion of Russian residents.
Meanwhile,
at airports, authorities are finding attempts by people to remove
tons of cash from the country, in violation of the law.
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