Bar Association examining AG report over lawyer’s claims

The Bar Association has not yet decided how to proceed with a complaint filed by the attorney-general over lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou.

Chairman of the association Michalis Vorkas told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday that although a decision on the matter was slated for February 12, the volume of material which needs to be assessed is extensive and so a decision will be taken at a later date.

Attorney general George Savvides has called for the association to examine whether Efstathiou committed disciplinary offences and appear before the disciplinary board.

“We have not taken a final decision and given the matter more time. We need to study the material and there is a lot of it, including media reports.”

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 to 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 a 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.

Savvides 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.

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