Three large accounting firms had the lion's share in terms of submitting applications for the acquisition of Cypriot citizenship through the Cyprus Investment Program (KEP). These are the offices of KPMG, PwC and Fides Corp. The latter also applied for citizenship to Malaysian fugitive Joe Lowe. It was also found that through another company (Damarion Holdings Limited) where Fides Corp. participates as secretary was given the contribution of € 300,000 to the Archbishop immediately after the issuance of Cypriot citizenship in Lowe, in September 2015.
At the same time, behind Fides Corp. There is allegedly a person who at the time in question was the son-in-law of a politician, whose name (politician) is involved in the scandal with the “golden” passports. The general manager of the Association of Chartered Accountants of Cyprus (SELK) Kyriakos Iordanou in his testimony yesterday before the commission of inquiry for the “golden” passports was asked about this case and in particular whether SELK conducted an investigation into the € 300,000 check. Mr. Iordanou stated that the event was reported by the media. After an audit of SELK, he said, it was found that a member of the association operates as a provider of the specific company but “the company that made the contribution is not supervised by any supervisor and we have no jurisdiction over this company”, referring to Damarion Holdings Limited. Regarding Lowe's case, he also said that SELK was sent to MOKAS in 2017. For her part, the member of the research committee, Dimitra Kalogirou, indicated to Mr. Iordanou that the specific office of Fides Corp. should be considered by the SELK as “high risk” because it is associated with a politically exposed person.
According to Mr. Iordanou, 30 members of SELK were involved in the KEP, who submitted a total of 756 applications for naturalization. So far, 25 have been audited for money laundering issues, while the remaining five offices will be audited this year. He also said that because the report of the research committee of Kalogiros on naturalizations was not given to SELK, the association proceeded with its own additional controls and “we are in the process of preparing the final reports” in relation to the investigations. “We requested the report from both the President and the competent Minister of Interior, who explained to me why he could not give it and after two weeks we saw it shaded in the newspapers,” said Mr. Jordanou. The members of the investigative committee called on Mr. Iordanou to contact the Presidential Palace again and ask for the Kalogirou's report to be handed over to him, noting that the President sent it to the President of the Pancyprian Bar Association, Christos Clerides, when he asked him about it.
Archbishop Nikolatos in the Committee: I told the President to stop stealing, I put myself in
The Archbishop got into trouble with the swindler Lowe
