On October 10 the anti-corruption authority will begin hearing an alleged corruption case implicating Edek leader and MP Marinos Sizopoulos, media reports said on Monday.

Brought to light by a former Edek MP, the case alleges that Sizopoulos and others were involved in a scam where an Iraqi national applied for a Cypriot passport under the now-defunct ‘citizenship via investment’ scheme.

The complaint to the anti-corruption authority was submitted in March 2023 by Giorgos Varnava, formerly an MP with Edek. Varvava will be the first witness summoned to testify, daily Politis said.

He alleges that a Cypriot passport was granted to an Iraqi even though the latter did not qualify under the criteria at the time (2017 to 2019 period).

The complaint notes that Sizopoulos was the owner of a betting company by the name of AN.KA Betting Ltd. In April 2018, the company was renamed to Io Ktimatiki Ltd.

In February 2009 the company bought up 25 per cent of the shares of Taxan Properties Developers Ltd, in which three other persons were also shareholders.

From 2007 to 2008, this entity got a bank loan of €1.625 million. Taxan Properties subsequently purchased a plot of land in Aradippou for the purposes of development.

No development took place on the land plot, the allegation asserts.

In February 2012 Sizopoulos transferred his shares in Io Ktimatiki Ltd to his two daughters. But he remained director of the company and thus the officer legally responsible for all its transactions.

Meantime the bank loan in question became non-performing in October 2017, with the borrowers now owing €2.58 million.

Later that same month, the bank came to an agreement with Taxan Properties to write off €956,000 of the loan, with the company obligated to pay back without delay the remaining €1.625 million.

In making these arrangements, the four shareholders of Taxan Properties allegedly presented to the bank an Iraqi investor, to whom they had agreed to sell their shares and also the plot of land.

In tandem with the loan write-off, the bank also struck up a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the company, its shareholders and the loan guarantors. Under the NDA, they were to return to the bank – or else destroy – all the documents signed between them.

The Iraqi investor meanwhile was “promised” a Cypriot passport. At the time, the criteria for obtaining Cypriot citizenship entailed an investment of at least €2 million plus holding a residential property worth €500,000 or more.

According to the allegation, Sizopoulos and his partners submitted a misleading contract to the finance ministry when filing the application for the ‘golden passport’. The document they submitted stated that the Iraqi’s investment in Cyprus came to €2.025 million, instead of the actual amount of €1.6 million.

Later, in July 2019, one of Sizopoulos’ partners was arrested by the police following a complaint. Under questioning, the partner apparently admitted his involvement in the case, and also handed over documents allegedly implicating other persons in criminal fraud.

The police next sent on the file to the attorney-general’s office. The latter, in October 2019, initiated the process for lifting Sizopoulos’ parliamentary immunity so that he could be questioned by police.

In July 2020, the newly appointed attorney-general George Savvides gave instructions to pause the process for lifting the parliamentary immunity. He also instructed that the case be filed away.

According to Politis, the sequence of events raises a number of questions: first, since a person was arrested and admitted wrongdoing, why was this person not prosecuted? Secondly, how did the Iraqi obtain a Cypriot passport without apparently being qualified? Thirdly, was this case looked at by either the auditor-general and/or by the special committee of inquiry that investigated the whole ‘golden passports’ affair?