A raid on a lawyer’s lobbying firm offices was carried out last Tuesday by the Cyprus Bar Association (CBA).
This development concerns an investigation into suspected fictitious transactions by the firm associated with the said lawyer, shortly after US sanctions were imposed on entities of the Intellexa group.
The group is linked to the surveillance scandal in Cyprus and Greece.
Members of the CBA’s compliance and oversight department, who visited the building facilities in Nicosia housing the entity in question, posed questions to the staff on site and seized a number of documents.
This particular department of the legal professional body is expected to draft a report that will be forwarded to the CBA’s administrative council.
Based on the findings, the administrative executives of the Cyprus Bar Association will decide on the subsequent handling of the case, specifically whether disciplinary measures will be taken or, more importantly, whether the case will be referred to the police for criminal investigation.
The case was also reported to the Anti-Money Laundering Unit.
As we know from the end of last month, the unit had decided to forward it to the Economic Crime Prosecution Sub-Directorate of the Cyprus Police, judging that a possible “fictitious transfer of shares” should be investigated.
The same source of Phileleftheros indicates that the Anti-Money Laundering Unit has already forwarded the necessary details to the police from the first week of April.
All the above investigations focus on the role of Finsol, registered in Cyprus. The latter is controlled by a Greek lawyer who is registered with the Cyprus Bar Association.
With this jurisdiction, the CBA is indeed investigating the case, as the legal professional from Greece is under the oversight of the lawyer’s professional body in Cyprus.
Finsol provides administrative services to Santinomo, which appears to hold share capital in Intellexa AE, which in turn was included in a list of sanctions by competent US ministries due to its connection to the Intellexa group and the surveillance software Predator.
Two days after the new restrictive measures imposed by OFAC (the US Treasury Department’s agency) on Intellexa, in early March, suspicious entries were observed in the file of Santinomo at the Registrar of Companies in Cyprus, with Finsol having a direct relationship.
Among other things, there was a registration of a backdated document for Santinomo Limited, which informed the Registrar of Companies in Cyprus with a delay of 39 months about changes in its administrative structure.
Moreover, an individual who appeared to be part of the administrative structure officially stated to the Greek investigative journalism website Inside Story that he had no knowledge of his inclusion in Santinomo’s management.
Additionally, there was a placement of an individual in the administrative structure of one of the registered companies in Cyprus for only a few hours.
All these actions raised legality issues, with journalists formally questioning both the Anti-Money Laundering Unit and the Cyprus Bar Association.
The issue has already gained attention in Greece as well.
