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SOUTH CYPRUS IS A MONEY
LAUNDERING HEAVEN (26.07.02)
In an article written
(July 25) in one of the U.K’s most prestigious economy and political
dailies, "The Financial Times", it was reported that when the
international community shunned Yugoslavia for much of the 1990s, the Greek
Cypriot Laiki (Popular) Bank in South Cyprus seized the chance to do business
with Belgrade and became former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s main
financial link with the outside world.
The article under the
heading "Defiant Cyprus bank that helped fund two wars" stated that
according to a report by Morten Torkildsen, an investigator at the United
Nations war crimes prosecutor’s office, Popular Bank, the second largest
bank in South Cyprus, allowed a group of Yugoslav-controlled front companies
to operate in defiance of U.N sanctions.
The article said that
these companies supplied Milosevic’s government with fuel, raw materials,
spare parts and weapons to pursue wars in Bosnia in 1992-1996 and in Kosovo in
1998-1999.
During the years 1992 and
1994 it is estimated that as much as 4 billion U.S Dollars was transferred to
South Cyprus, with the funds being deposited mainly at the Popular Bank and
its Greek subsidiary, European Popular Bank.
The aritlce also added
that a Financial Times investigation revealed that instead of taking measures
against Yugoslav sanctions-busting, leading members of South Cyprus’s
close-knit elite facilitated the transactions. They included Afxentiou,
Governor of the Greek Cypriot Central Bank; Kiklis Lazarides, Chairman of the
Popular Bank; and Tassos Papadopoulos, a prominent lawyer and leader since
2000 of the Democratic Party, South Cyprus’s second-biggest political party.
Papadopoulos will be a candidate in the Presidential elections that will take
place in South Cyprus in February 2003.
It was also reported that
South Cyprus’s willingness to help Milosevic get around U.N sanctions stems
from a long tradition of close ties between South Cyprus and Yugoslavia. The
Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly backed Milosevic during the Yugoslav succession
wars and after U.N sanctions were imposed in July 1992, the number of
Yugoslav-controlled companies in South Cyprus soared from fewer than 1,000 to
more than 7,000.
Officials
at the Cyprus Central Bank registered Yugoslav front companies as offshore
trading businesses and they were financed with cash flown from Belgrade to
South Cyprus and deposited in special accounts, mainly at Popular Bank. The
accounts were managed by officials at the South Nicosia based offshore branch
of Beogradska Banka, a state owned bank run by Borka Vukic, one of
Milosevic’s closest associates.
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