Law Office meeting on naturalisations, after ex-minister charged

The naturalisations of foreign businessmen and investors are being discussed on Tuesday morning at the Law Office, shortly after former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades was charged with offences related to corruption, bribery and money laundering in the golden passports scandal.

Tuesday’s meeting, presided over by attorney-general George Savvides, started at 10am to look into all cases still being investigated.

A case was filed against Demetriades at the Nicosia district court on Friday in relation to Cyprus’ investment programme and will be brought to court on October 30, 2024.

Demetriades is also charged with intervening in the procedure of approving naturalisations.

The charges include a trip Demetriades made to China as a member of the government.

The indictment comprises over 50 charges against eight individuals and two legal entities.

These include Demetriades’ father and two siblings, with interests in the family’s law firm, through which the naturalisations were being made.

A lawyer working for the firm, a foreign investor, a member of staff at Cyprus’ embassy in China, as well as her spouse, are also being charged.

Over the next few days, those involved will be handed the indictment.

A proposal for criminal prosecutions had been made in September 2023, as police had reason to believe offences had been committed regarding the naturalisation of 19 investors.

Investigators gathered evidence according to which a man married to an embassy employee played a key role in attracting interested people, who paid for their ‘golden passports’ and part of the amount ended up in the hands of a third party.

Furthermore, a published affidavit of a police officer referred to the role of the law firm and the family relationship of a political figure with the founder of the firm.

The police officer said emails were found indicating that the firm was using its relationship with the political figure to attract clients.

An arrest warrant is pending against a Chinese man, holder of a Cypriot passport, who tried to annul the court order, which the Supreme Court dismissed in September 2023.

Investigations began in July 2021 after a tripartite committee appointed by the cabinet in November 2019 to look into the naturalisation of investors submitted a report.

The case started to unravel through investigations into the naturalisation of three people from Cambodia – a couple and their grown son – which had been processed by the law firm in question.

In a written statement, Demetriades said his targeting was predetermined with the purpose of using him as a scapegoat.

“False allegations and malicious accusations were made to distort the truth and bring me to court,” Demetriades said.

He added that “for three full years my personal, family and professional life has been thoroughly checked, as have all my political decisions [and] no fault was found,” Demetriades said.

“I have absolute trust in justice, knowing that in the end truth and justice always prevail,” Demetriades added.

Demetriades, a minister in Nicos Anastasiades’ government, resigned from his post on February 12, 2018.

A year earlier, in February 2017, he had refused to step down despite a storm of calls for his resignation over problems at Limassol port.

On April 27, 2021, the interim findings of an investigation into the citizenship-by-investment scheme were released, recording a litany of irregularities and outright unlawful practices in the granting of Cypriot passports down the years.

A month later, on May 25, 2021, Marios Demetriades’ brother, Demetris, testifying under oath, flatly denied the former minister had anything to do with applications filed by their family’s law firm on behalf of foreign nationals seeking a Cypriot passport or permanent residence under the now-defunct citizenship-by-investment programme.