The Nicosia District Court has formally referred former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades and nine other defendants to the Criminal Court in connection with a golden passports case.
The prosecution, represented by Andreas Aristides, requested bail of €100,000 for individual defendants and €60,000 for corporate entities, which was unopposed by defence lawyers. Only the sixth defendant, Jing Wang, must pay €100,000 in cash, apparently due to weaker ties to the Republic.
The case will begin at the Criminal Court on 16 January. The defendants are represented by various lawyers: Petros Stavrou for Marios Demetriades; criminal lawyer Elias Stefanou for six defendants including Andreas, Dimitris and George Demetriades, Eleni Simillidi, Vasiliki Georgiou-Santin and Andreas Demetriades & Co LLC; Yiannis Polychronis, Nicolas Theodorou and Evanthia Constantinou for Jing Wang and Delsk Ltd; and Haris Georgiou for Josef Friedrich Santin.
The charges involve corruption, bribery, conspiracy to defraud, and money laundering related to the naturalisation of 19 Asian investors. Police believe the scheme involved a man married to an embassy employee who had contact with Chinese investors. Money was allegedly paid by those seeking Cypriot passports, with portions of investment funds being channelled to third parties through companies.
Former minister Demetriades is specifically charged with intervening in citizenship applications handled by his father’s and brothers’ law firm. The second charge involves “accepting gifts as a public official” related to Chinese investor Lio Changcai’s naturalisation. The third charge alleges bribery of a public official, citing his active participation in Cabinet decisions.
The fifth charge of influence peddling involves defendants Josef Friedrich Santin, Vasiliki Georgiou-Santin, and Delsk Ltd. They allegedly sought improper advantage from an Asian investor between 13-30 October 2015, involving economic benefits for themselves and/or JW Paegasus Ltd, with Georgiou-Santin using her position at the Cyprus Embassy in China.
The case also includes a VAT fraud charge against Andreas, Dimitris, and George Demetriades and Eleni Simillidi, resulting in €49,000 in losses to the state through false declarations about property use.
Additionally, Dimitris Demetriades, Jing Wang, and the law firm face charges of conspiring to defraud a bank of €3,565,000 through fictitious invoices between Primeblue Ltd and JW Pegasus Ltd.
The citizenship-by-investment scheme – known as the ‘golden passports programme’ – was abolished after an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera revealed rampant corruption and that the government approved issuing passports to international criminals and fugitives, drawing criticism from the European Union and sparking protests in the country.
Under the scheme, foreign nationals were able to acquire a Cypriot passport by investing more than 2 million euros in the country.
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