Cyprus court issues arrest warrant for ex-central banker

A judge in the southern Cyprus coastal town of Limassol has issued an arrest warrant for former Central Bank Governor Athanasios Orphanides who did not appear in court to hear charges of collusion in the plaintiff’s claim over mis-selling of Popular Laiki Bank’s convertible bonds.
Lawyer Costas Melas said his client was mis-sold 400,000 euros worth of bonds which have since been deemed worthless after the bank was initially rescued by the state but eventually resolved as part of the 10 bln euro bailout for Cyprus.
Orphanides, who lives in Boston, in the United States, and teaches at MIT, will have to appear on November 14 is the warrant is served in time.
The lawyers for two codefendants, Laiki’s former chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos and former CEO Efthymios Bouloutas, both living in Greece and executives in the Marfin Investment Group, formerly major shareholder of Laiki, have asked for a postponement until November 4 to review the writs filed against them and to decide whether to contend the charges or reject them.