CYPRUS: President seeks advice in Central Bank fracas

President Nicos Anastasiades will seek legal advice from the Attorney General to see how Central Bank Governor Chrystalla Georghadji can be sacked, if at all, a year after a similar case forced the previous centralbanker out of office.

Political party leaders pressed the President on Sunday to fire Georghadji, citing a conflict of interest, but clearly miffed that the names of 29 MPs were leaked to the press as having bad loans which they have not repaid.
But the plot thickened after one of the two executive directors of the central bank quit last week saying that Georghadji was using the list to blackmail members of parliament and that she had allegedly claimed at a central bank board meeting that the Deputy Attorney General was on the take from a leading law firm in Limassol, one that was representing the state in reclaiming assets from the biggest shareholders of the now defunct Laiki Bank.
The conflict of interest that politicians alluded to was that Georgehadji’s former husband continued to represent the Laiki mega shareholders, Andreas Vgenopoulos, a matter that seems to have been resolved on its own after Andreas Georghadji reportedly said on state radio on Monday morning that he would stop representing Vgenopoulos.
Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi had been informed of Anatsaiades’ intentions, having learned the hard way last year that he could not easily sack former Governor Panicos Demetriades, charged with allowing the economy and the banking system to melt down on his watch.
Meanwhile, Chrystalla Georghadji said that she will continue in her duties, while the remaining members of the Central Bank board said that it was very awkward to work with her as long as there was a conflict of interest.