Former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades and nine others, including family members and corporate entities, face 59 charges in a high-profile citizenship-for-investment scandal, court documents revealed.
The indictment, filed at the Nicosia District Court, includes charges of corruption, bribery, conspiracy to defraud, and money laundering related to the naturalisation of 19 Asian investors.
Among the accused are Demetriades’s father and two brothers, partners in the family’s law firm, and two companies: Andreas Demetriades @ Co LLC and Delsk (Cyprus) Business Services Ltd.
The case, set for an October hearing at the Criminal Court, involves allegations of improper interventions in the citizenship approval process, including a contentious official trip to China by Demetriades.
Investigators claim that investors paid for Cypriot passports, with 25% commissions allegedly distributed through corporate entities. The probe also uncovered evidence of false invoicing, sources close to the investigation said.
According to the evidence collected, a man married to an employee of the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus played a pivotal role in attracting investors.
Witnesses
The list of prosecution witnesses includes 86 individuals.
Savvas Kakos, a well-known land developer, is listed as a key prosecution witness. His involvement has sparked controversy.
Two Supreme Court cases involving appeals from the defendants mention companies owned by Kakos and their role in transferring funds. Additionally, the cases reference correspondence from Kakos to investigators that details the corporate entities’ collaboration.
Demetriades accuses Kakos of false testimony
Demetriades has accused Kakos of providing false testimony against him to the Attorney General, George Savvides. Before criminal proceedings were initiated, Demetriades wrote to Savvides, claiming that Kakkos’s testimony was inaccurate.
In his letter, Demetriades stated that he did not intend to influence the investigation but wanted to ensure that his side of the story was considered. However, just a few days later, he and nine others were charged.
Demetriades specifically disputed Kakos’s claims regarding three alleged incidents: a meeting about the Cyprus-China air route, a meeting with his brother, and a trip to China. He argued that official records contradict Kakos’s testimony in the first case and that the second meeting never occurred.
Demetriades suggested that Kakos had profited from the naturalization process and had become a “professional prosecution witness.”
Attorney General Savvides declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing legal proceedings and emphasising the presumption of innocence.
‘Ulterior motives‘
The Demetriades family’s law firm issued a statement decrying “unprecedented and limitless targeting that serves ulterior motives”, vowing to contest the charges.
