Together with three other accused, Cyprus’ ex-parliamentary speaker has to answer in court from September.
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Athens For years, Cyprus has been pilloried for serious irregularities in the issuance of the so-called “golden passports” in the EU. In more than half of all cases, the law was broken, a study shows.
The machinations in the granting of Cypriot citizenship to suspicious foreign investors are now having legal repercussions. The Cypriot Attorney General has filed charges. Four of the accused, including ex-Parliament President Dimitris Syllouris, the former second man in the state, will have to answer in court from September.
When “Billy” and “Angie” presented their concerns to the then Speaker of Parliament Syllouris at a private lunch in Cyprus, the politician was all ears. The visitors pretended to represent a Chinese businessman interested in becoming a citizen of the EU country Cyprus. At that time, anyone who invested at least 2.5 million euros in Cyprus, for example in a property, could get it.
The businessman had the money – but also a seven-year criminal record for money laundering and bribery, his representatives said. That would actually have disqualified him for the “golden pass”. Parliament President Syllouris nevertheless promised to help: “You can tell your client that he has the full support of Cyprus, at all levels – full support!”
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Also at the table was Christakis Giovanis, a member of parliament for the communist Akel party and a real estate developer by profession. “It’s not easy, but we’ll do our best,” Giovanis promised. When asked by visitors if they could change their client’s name to cover up their criminal record, Giovanis replied with a laugh: “Of course, this is Cyprus!”
Conversation recorded with hidden camera
What Syllouris and Giovanis didn’t know was that the visitors had come on behalf of the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera. They recorded the conversation with a hidden camera. When the channel broadcast the documentary “The Cyprus Papers Undercover” on October 12, 2020, it triggered a political earthquake in Cyprus. Parliament President Syllouris and MP Giovanis had to resign from their posts.
Syllouris and Giovanis are accused of “conspiracy to defraud the state and improperly influencing public officials” and violating the Council of Europe’s Anti-Corruption Convention. Also accused are a prominent lawyer and a manager of the real estate developer Giovanis. The first hearing is scheduled for September 12th. If found guilty, Syllouris, 69, and the other defendants face five years in prison.
Cyprus has been criticized for years for granting citizenships. Between 2007 and 2020, the island republic naturalized 6,779 investors from third countries, mostly rich Russians. Anyone who gets a Cypriot passport becomes an EU citizen and can move and settle freely in all 27 member states.
This also attracted shady prospects. An investigation initiated last year documented “criminal and political misconduct” in 53 percent of all naturalizations completed since 2007. Cyprus sold citizenships to criminals who had criminal records or were wanted in their homeland for tax evasion, fraud, money laundering, corruption or other crimes.
It was thanks to resourceful law firms and prominent advocacy that they were nevertheless given Cypriot passports. As in the case of the businessman Jho Taek Low from Malaysia, who is accused in his home country of having siphoned money from a sovereign wealth fund. He turned to the Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostom for help through intermediaries and finally got a passport from the island republic. The man of God was well paid for his intercession: Jho Taek Low donated 300,000 euros to the church.
“Error” in the passport allocation admitted
Despite massive criticism from the EU Commission and the European Parliament, Cyprus stuck to the “Golden Passport” program for a long time. As early as 2019, the then Cypriot Interior Minister Konstantinos Petridis admitted that there were “mistakes” in the issuing of passports. Above all, there was a lack of checks to ensure that the applicants had no criminal record and that their invested funds came from legitimate sources. The passports of 26 people were revoked at the time, including ten Russians.
After the revelations in the Al Jazeera documentary, which has since won multiple awards, the pressure on the government became too great. In November 2020, she stopped the “Golden Passport” program “due to long-standing weaknesses and abuse,” according to the official statement. However, 1,417 applications pending at the time were processed further. In 2021 alone, the government granted 390 additional citizenships. The EU Commission then initiated infringement proceedings against Cyprus.
Because of the allegations, Dimitris Syllouris has not only resigned as President of the Cypriot Chamber of Deputies, but also from his parliamentary mandate and thus lost his criminal immunity. He affirms that he has not broken any law.
More: EU citizenship: Cyprus collects ‘golden passports’ again