Overseas team to help investigate Cyprus Confidential claims

A team from abroad will be arriving in Cyprus to help investigate revelations made in the Cyprus Confidential report that claimed to show Russian influence on the island in helping oligarchs and billionaires structure their wealth in the run up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Saturday.

Speaking after addressing the 6^th Mediterranean Symposium by BPW, Christodoulides said that following the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reports on Cyprus, he requested that a team of specialists from a third country [he did not specify] come to Cyprus to help with investigating the claims.

“Last night we had a positive reply, and a team is coming to Cyprus to bolster Cyprus authorities, and all those that have already started investigating,” he said.

He added that the government shows zero tolerance to these issues, and that everything that has been published will be investigated.

The investigation dealt extensively with corruption, sanctions-busting and how Russian wealth was allegedly shielded, relations with Russia, the role of the banking sector and of independent institutions and the well-documented golden passports scandal.

The investigation claims to reveal “financial enablers in Cyprus — including accounting powerhouse PwC — scrambled to keep a step ahead of looming sanctions”.