A university in the north on Tuesday announced that “senior figures” in its administration have been embezzling money from its funds.

The Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou said it has “become the victim of a criminal organisation” with people siphoning money from its funds “for the sake of their personal ambitions and interests”.

It added that it had been carrying out internal investigations after receiving information regarding the matter.

The findings included that “large amounts of money were embezzled through separate bank accounts not related to the university”, and that “exaggerated and forged invoices and commission payments” allowed the embezzlers to siphon funds away from it.

The university said, “the founders of our university do not accept and cannot tolerate” what has happened and said the thefts “stole the reputation of our university”.

It added that it will “continue to cooperate with the police to clarify all irregularities, all corruption, and all crimes, to identify and punish all criminals regardless of who they are, and to restore the stolen reputation of our university.”