The Nicosia Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced a 47 year old woman from Russia to eight years in prison after she was found guilty of theft and money laundering.
According to the court, in 2012, Irena Koumpari — who at the time offered administrative and other services to ERILIN Holdings Ltd and managed its account at the Kaimakli co-op – appropriated €1.97m from the company’s deposit account there. As the sole authorised signatory of the account, she transferred the money to her own account. She had faced a maximum jail time of 14 years.
The court described the case as particularly serious and noted that no money had been returned to the owners who had sustained a huge loss.
It added that it deemed it essential to pass down a sentence that would serve as a deterrent in the light of a spike in financial crime, but nevertheless took into consideration as mitigating factors her clean record as well as her family circumstances as a mother of three children, two of them underage.
The court passed down jail terms of four to eight years to run concurrently, effective from when she was taken into custody on April 30, 2018.
