Lawyers slam CySEC over GGB fines on “golden boys” 8 mln

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Lawyers for former executives at Bank of Cyprus and now defunct Laiki Popular are challenging the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission’s harsh fines totaling about 8 mln euros regarding the purchase of toxic Greek government bonds and misleading information given to the public and in the relevant prospectuses.

The Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Popular face administrative fines of 1.05 mln and 950,000 euros, respectively, but senior executives of both banks have been handed fines on board members and senior ranging from 10,000 euros to 530,000 euros each for former BOCY CEO and chairman, Theodoros Aristodimou and Andreas Eliades and rising to 703,000 euros each to ex-Laiki bosses Andreas Vgenopoulos and Efthymios Bouloutas.

The law firms of Chrysses Demetriades & Co in Limassol and Christos M. Traintafylides in Nicosia claim their clients were made scapegoats by CySEC and the allegations were biased and lacked objectivity. They also claimed that the prospectuses had been pre-approved by CySEC prior to the public release. The lawyers said that they will resort to justice and sue the Commission over its allegations.

However, CySEC chairman Demetra Kalogirou countered the claims saying that there was no way to ensure that all the provisions and conditions included in the prospectuses were respected by the issuers and their directors and board members and that it was the responsibility of another organisation to investigate whether the two banks kept true to their prospectus details.