Bar Association to decide whether to discipline lawyer

The Bar Association will convene on Monday to decide how to proceed with the attorney-general’s report over lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou.

Chairman of the association Michalis Vorkas said the matter was on the agenda and the board would decide whether the case should be referred to the disciplinary board.

Attorney general George Savvides last week said Efstathiou’s claims of corruption in the legal service had crossed the line, after the lawyer sent a letter to President Nikos Christodoulides suggesting the AG’s office was corrupt all the way to the top – and may have even been bribed.

Efstathiou accused the AG, his deputy and the legal service itself of collaborating with a billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Boyko to allow an allegedly illegal $113.4 million deal go unpunished.

Specifically, he claimed that $113.4 million worth of shares were stolen from his client Ilya Alekseevitch Surkov and illegally transferred to Boyko through Cyprus-registered companies.

Though the AG’s office published an initial denial of any corruption claims, Savvides reacted again two days later, saying he had contacted the head of the Cyprus Bar Association and told him he would share all of Efstathiou’s public statements within the day.

This was to assess whether Efstathiou committed disciplinary offences.

According to Vorkas, should the association’s board decide the case should be referred to the disciplinary board, then Efstathiou will be called to present his arguments.

The AG said he would recuse himself from the proceedings as he heads the disciplinary board.