"A company owned by in-laws of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades wired €21 million from Laiki Bank to London days before the Eurogroup’s crisis-triggering levy proposal, claims a Cypriot newspaper. The president demands an investigation.In related news, Cyprus News reports that "700millions fled the country between 1-15 march 2013".
During two days, 12 and 13 of March, the company A.Loutsios & Sons Ltd., co-owned by Loutsios John, the husband of Nikos Anastasiadis’ daughter, Elsa, took five promissory notes worth €21 million from Laiki Bank. The money was then transferred to London, reported Cypriot newspaper Haravgi, affiliated to the communist-rooted AKEL party.
The withdrawal was fulfilled just three days before the Eurogroup meeting when euro finance ministers agreed a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for Cyprus.
The company, however, has firmly denied the reports.
The newspaper recalls that Cyprus Finance Minister, Michalis Sarris, publicly admitted that the government was aware in advance about the Eurogroup’s intentions to impose a “haircut” on bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros.
Spokesman of AKEL, Stavros Evagorou, has called on the investigation committee to check the information regarding money withdrawal by Anastasiades’ family members as well as other reports about money transfer from the country on the eve of the Eurogroups’ levy decision.
Responding to the allegations, President Anastasiades called the publication an “attempt to defame companies or people linked to my family”.
“[This] is nothing but an attempt to distract people from the liability of those who led the country to a state of bankruptcy,” Anastasiades said.
The president stressed that no one, including himself, will walk free from the on-going investigations looking into responsibility for the crisis that has engulfed the Cypriot economy.
Moreover, Anastasiades assured that when the investigative committee assembled on Tuesday, he would request that its members look into this particular case."
Protothema.gr reports the following:
"Four pages with the names of some 132 companies and individuals who withdrew the bulk of their deposits in euros, dollars and rubles kept in local banks reveals protothema.gr.
Transfers of money totaling causes vertigo made within 15 days, namely the period from 1st until March 15, 2013. On Friday, March 15 at the Eurogroup meeting which decided formally levy, as has been called the "haircut", on deposits of companies and individuals in all banks in Cyprus. These 132 companies and individuals seem to have "inside" information about impending single taxation of deposits in Cypriot banks so it proved as the elements contained in lists, in most cases, they withdrew all their deposits in Euro, dollars and rubles, which moved to other banks outside Cyprus, which apparently considered a "safe harbor."
The disclosure of the list, which shows that the outflow of deposits from local banks other financial institutions outside Cyprus became massively creates reasonable suspicion that some had inside information about the decisions taken by the other 16 eurozone countries in exchange for funding deficits of the economy.
Apart from the huge moral issue raised, the government of Nikos Anastasiadis is heavily exposed, since in some cases, those who took huge funds from abroad are relatives of the President of the Republic, as the company Loutsios & Sons ltd owned by father of groom Nikos Anastasiadis, who three days before the decision to "haircut" deposits transferred to a British bank 21 million euros!
Read the lists with the names of all companies and individuals who withdrew their deposits from Cyprus during the period from 1st until March 15.
The first column are names of companies and individuals in the second record of the amounts withdrawn in the third column refers to the account balance of the People, the currency in the fourth and the fifth and last column refers to the date of transfer."
