CYPRUS: Paphos court dismisses Vgenopoulos “bond fraud”

The District Court of Paphos dismissed on Thursday a penal case against former Laiki strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos and his close confidante Efthymios Bouloutas saying that the claim that the former bankers and six other colluded to defraud the victim of 108,000 euros worth of bonds was baseless.

The court ruled that in all three counts of the indictment there were grounds to dismiss due to the multiplicity of the arguments, with several alleged offenses included in the charge sheet, which in effect violated the defendants’ right to a fair trial.
The court concluded that this could not be remedied by changing the indictment, thus cancelled them and ordered the dismissal of the defendants. It also cancelled the arrest warrants for Vgenopoulos and Bouloutas.
However, according to press reports, the whole case will be forwarded to the Attorney General’s office in order to conclude what would be the best remedial course in this action. Among the options available is an appeal to the Supreme Court that may have to decide on the validity of the Paphos court decision, that has been contested by the prosecution.
In a statement issued by Vgenopoulos’ holding company in Athens, the court also found the expenses in favour of the defendants.
“It is beyond belief how the lawyer representing the bondholder managed to argue the case in court for 22 months with a non-existing indictment,” said Vgenopoulos in the statement, adding that “one point in question was when the court ordered the defence lawyer to clarify some of his claims, he alleged that I conducted illegal acts from the bank’s office in Nicosia between March and April 2010, when it was proven that I only travelled to the island in October of that year.”
In his usual rhetoric, Vgenopoulos said that this case “proves that those who tried to discredit me in this non existent case, will face the consequences of the law.”