CFI Fund claims shortfall

The Provident Fund of the Cyprus Forest Industries (CFI) staff has reported a CYP 220.000 shortfall in assets that were under the management of Suphire.

The revelation comes after it emerged that the provident funds of the EAC staff and the Pilots Union were also in shortfall to the tune of CYP 9.2 mln and CYP 800.000 respectively. Both funds were also managed by Suphire.

The General Manager of the CFI, Petros Vrachimis who is also the Chairman of the Management Committee of the Provident Fund said that the CFI has instructed its lawyers to press charges with respect to the missing funds.

“We cannot know at this stage the exact amount of the missing funds until a thorough audit is completed,” said Vrachimis.

Suphire is reported to have been managing CYP 1.1 mln of the CFI Staff Provident Fund, or 20% of the total.

Authorities revealed that they are investigating all the provident funds and private accounts managed by Suphire ahead of the approach of the six-day suspension deadline imposed by the SEC and the CSE last Tuesday on Suphire.

The SEC will need hard evidence of major irregularities before it decides to extend the suspension ban for three-months. However, authorities denied that they had interrogated Yiannos Andronicou or frozen the assets of Suphire.

The Suphire saga meanwhile took its toll on the stock market on Thursday amid fears that many provident funds may refrain from investing in local stocks or deal with a local fund manager.