Papadopoulos’ Law Οffice did not violate sanctions

A senior partner in the Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law Offices told a court hearing on Thursday that no member of the office signed any transaction or carried out any action knowing that it would constitute a violation of the UN sanctions imposed on former Yugoslavia.

Lawyer Pambos Ioannides, one of the senior partners of Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law Offices, in his testimony before the Nicosia District Court in the trial of the lawsuit filed by President of the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos and his law office against the “Financial Times” on allegations of involvement in money laundering and money transfer by Serbian Beogradska Banka, said the article “contains insinuations which impute the plaintiffs carried out illegalities and improper, petty and trivial actions.”

During his cross examination by the ”Financial Times” lawyer Pavlos Angelides, Ioannides said the Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law Offices “under no circumstances proceeded with any action which might have the slightest responsibility of committing an illegality,” adding that “we are proud that we are acting 100% proper professionals.”

The litigious articles, where damages of up to 250,000 Cyprus pounds are being sought, were published in the 25 July 2002 issue of the ”Financial Times”.

The articles refer to allegations of activities by the plaintiffs to promote money laundering, helping the late Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, violating UN sanctions and for illegal usurpation of funds belonging to the Yugoslav state.

Angelides put to Ioannides that PCL Pelcam Trade Ltd Company was registered by the Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law Office and that members of the office were shareholders, with prime shareholder Papadopoulos, and with bank accounts in Switzerland.

Replying, Ioannides did not rule out the plaintiff being a shareholder. He said the registering of companies with lawyers named as shareholders is a normal practice as far as offshore companies are concerned.

“There is nothing unusual that Tassos Papadopoulos or other lawyers in his office are shareholders in companies which they have registered. Companies with international activities are likely to have accounts both in Cyprus and the US and any other country. This is not unusual,” he added.

Ioannides also said it is possible for members of the office to have acted as directors or under another capacity, adding that this is part of normal services which law offices offer to offshore companies.

He pointed out that these directors do not deal with current trade activities but act solely and strictly under their clients’ orders. “These directors do not exercise any management to decide which actions will be carried out,” he added.

As far as the bank accounts are concerned, Ioannides said that it was possible that they were opened by members of the law office or by its accountants or auditors, which is another normal practice following clients’ instructions.

He underlined that “no member of the office signed any transaction or carried out any action knowing that it would constitute a violation of the sanctions.”

“I am completely categorical and I say that it was not in our knowledge if any transaction was linked to an action which could have possibly violated the sanctions,” he added.

Ioannides told the court that Central Bank regulations were strictly followed in the registration of offshore companies.

In his testimony, Ioannides could not confirm that that the eight companies which were registered by the Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law Offices, among them ANTEXOL and

BROWN COURT

, had Beogradska Banka as the real holder.

Referring to Beogradska Banka, Ioannides said it cooperated with many Cypriot banks, including the Bank of Cyprus, the Popular Bank and Barclays Bank. He also said that it was a large bank with a big number of Cypriots and foreigners and cooperated with hundreds of companies. After the start of the Yugoslav crisis, he added, and the sanctions imposed, multiple problems as far as the bank’s operation and its exchanges arose because the sanctions were not performed in uniform in various countries.

He also said that many court procedures involving millions of pounds began both in Cyprus and overseas by clients which the bank could not any longer honour. So Beogradska Banka performed many of its transactions through other banks, he added.

The lawyer for the Tassos Papadopoulos & Co Law offices said the lawsuit was filed because of the “malicious and false” statements in the newspaper report.

“The point is that they have slandered the plaintiffs and have not shown nor did they intend to show any sign of proof that the plaintiffs knowingly committed the least in these so called illegalities that are being alleged in the report,” Ioannides concluded.

The hearing continues on 7 May when Ioannides will be cross examined by Beogradska Banka’s lawyer.