Lawyer Andreas Pittatzis testified before the Commission of Inquiry into the naturalizations. On Friday 07/05 at 15:00 was preceded by the deposition of lawyer Socrates Ellinas of the law firm Areti Haridimou & Associates DEPE and at 16:30 the deposition of Theodoros Parperis, Partner of PWC.
It is recalled that Dimitris Syllouris and Christakis Tziovanis, when called to testify, invoked their right to remain silent.
The testimony of A. Pittatzis
"I have not done anything illegal, I have nothing to fear but nothing to hide, I hand over to you power of attorney of mine, of the company and of my wife who authorize the Commission to carry out any investigations inside or outside the country to locate "assets, transactions and find that I did not receive or give a penny related to illegality and corruption," he concluded.
As far as "this is Cyprus" is concerned, it was not said as it appears, Mr. Pittatzis noted. I was asked if anyone could change their name and I answered in the affirmative. The KYC I mentioned, is done before the name change and is done after going through the whole process successfully. After the official response from the state, as he said, the name may change. As soon as I said this thing, later I said "this is Cyprus", it had nothing to do with the specific issue presented in the video. The video is a product of lewd editing.
"I challenge Al Jazeera to send the real videos, I have been slaughtered by the media and I have been sentenced in a public court. "The harshest court is public opinion and I have been slaughtered," he said emphatically.
Regarding the applications for naturalization undertaken by his office, Mr. Pittatzis noted that they have all been checked by a distinguished expert for all the clients he represented. As he said, there are 14 naturalizations in total, as applicants, where in these applications it should be calculated that they are plus spouses and children. So far 11 have been approved, and 3 are pending.
Then Mr. Pittatzis noted that there are many investigations for him, research for video, investigation by the compliance department, investigation of the applications that has progressed, investigation by all banks if they were in compliance, investigation by the investigation committee, investigation by the Home Affairs Committee and tax investigation.
The lawyer, now known for the video, testified to the Commission that, on October 12, the video in question was made public and on October 29, he allowed the Police to check his office, computers and other related items. On November 21, he said he handed over power of attorney to himself and his wife to see their assets. Following the release of the video, he said that he asked for his analysis and stressed that he himself was shocked by what he saw in the final product. According to a copy of a report by the expert who had analyzed the five-time murder of Ayia Napa, the report states that scenes are being stapled on the content, while critical dialogues that took place between him and the "wealth managers" were also received. Then, Mr. Pittatzis showed photos of himself that are snapshots of the video and that he seems to be wearing different ties. So from different times and therefore a video is made.
Then, one of the commissioners of the 4-member Committee, answering a question about how he was forbidden to make public anything about the case, but then MOKAS told him after a year that it is out of their responsibilities. Mr. Pittatzis noted that he does not know, he does not want to leave tips and although he asked permission from MOKAS to publish his actions, they answered in the negative. "I do not know the reasons for their decision," he said.
Mr. Pittatzis stressed that he waited 7 months to speak, said that he had been shot and was forbidden to speak even though he was defending a lifetime of clients. On 22/9 I responded to Al Jazeera, informing them in turn that I had suspicions about the people who approached me, stressing that I had made written complaints to the authorities, and stressing that I was recording them. He told them that I was forbidden to send them the complaint and that they had to contact the competent authority if they wanted to complain. I then informed MOKAS that I was approached by journalists instead of investors, but MOKAS informed him on November 5, 2020 that it does not fall within its responsibilities since it is not an attempt and they are not investors. Additionally, Mr. Pittatzis said that it takes years and a lot of effort to create the name of his law firm, however he was "seduced" by an edited video from the tsunami that caused the relevant video that was shown.
After a question from Ms. Dimitra Kalogirou, one of the four commissioners for the research committee, about why she went through this whole process and did not refuse to take over the clients from the beginning, Mr. Pittatzis said the following: "I did the My legal duty, as far as the legal ones are concerned, I said bring me to see with him with the possible conviction. The answer is leave my office is easy, it is difficult to do my debt to the state. It is the duty of every lawyer not to protect the house, but also the state.
Regarding another question from another member of the Commission regarding how he met these "wealth managers", Mr. Pittatzis said the following: The "wealth managers" were brought by the real estate company that I have been working with for 20 years. I continue to work with them, my partners contacted them that they had many customers and a huge clientele. In fact, they once talked about hundreds of millions of investments in Cyprus. I thought I could take on clients who were not facing a possible conviction.
On November 1, 2019, MOKAS appointed an investigator and Mr. Pittatzis submitted the relevant document to the Investigative Committee as evidence. As he said, the next day the appointed investigator contacted him and his orders were to wait for these "investors" to return to Cyprus, so that the process with MOKAS could proceed. After 1 year, he received, as Mr. Pittatzis said, an email from the Al Jazeera Network that the two gentlemen were journalists.
Then, on October 29, 2019, at an unsuspecting time and after I had contacted them, I called the bar association and asked for their advice, with Mr. Doros Ioannidis confirming me. Then, I made a relevant report to MOKAS.
Regarding what has been published by the Al Jazeera network, Mr. Pittatzis stated that he had understood from these two "wealth managers" who approached him that there would be an attempt to launder black money. Mr. Pittatzis stressed that the talks with the "wealth managers" were aimed at providing guidelines to the entities required to submit quality reports to the MO.K.AS.
It is noted that MOKAS, as the National Financial Information Unit of Cyprus, is solely responsible for receiving all reports that include suspicions that funds constitute or may constitute proceeds of crime or are in any way related to the Terrorist financing.
Then Mr. Pittatzis clarified before the committee that he was not in any meeting with Mr. Syllouris and until a year later, that is in 2020, he had never met him up close.
On October 25 and 26 I had meetings with them, and the first communication I had with them was on October 24, 2019 and on the same day I made an internal report on the provisions of Article 19 (register of internal reports). As stated by Mr. Pittatzis, according to the instructions of MOKAS, the lawyer must investigate the suspects and it must be checked whether according to the instructions of MOKAS the transaction will continue.
According to Mr. Pittatzis, he mentioned that, on October 25, 2019, I exchanged text messages with the brokers I brought to my office, in an attempt to catch information. The text messages have also been submitted to the police. Because of my suspicions, I was recording "wealth managers" to keep information on my cell phone. Also these conversations have been given to the police. I explained to them what they could not do in Cyprus and that rinsing could not be done. I told them that they would have to bring the appropriate documents to decide if we would take them on as customers.
The forms of reports submitted to MOKAS are divided into Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs). The accusation, which was read by Mr. Pittatzis before the Investigator, includes reports based on general suspicions which arise from the general behavior of the person in question and which creates the knowledge or belief that he may be involved in illegal activities by which may have generated revenue. These reports should be limited and the liable entities should normally investigate transactions and not be limited to reporting to the Information Unit only e.g. posts.
Mr. Pittatzis, as he said before the Investigation, proceeded to MOKAS for a report attempt for laundering and proceeded the work of communication together with the "wealth managers" of the video because the controlled entities should not reveal to their customers the intention of complaint.
Regarding what has been published by the Al Jazeera network, Mr. Pittatzis stated that he had understood from these two "wealth managers" who approached him that there would be an attempt to launder black money. Mr. Pittatzis stressed that the talks with the "wealth managers" were aimed at providing guidelines to the entities required to submit quality reports to the MO.K.AS.
It is noted that MOKAS, as the National Financial Information Unit of Cyprus, is solely responsible for receiving all reports that include suspicions that funds constitute or may constitute proceeds of crime or are in any way related to the Terrorist financing.
At the beginning of the procedure before the Research Committee, Mr. Pittatzis made statements about his profession, submitted a number of presumptions and the statement he prepared. He prepared a written statement, stating that one of the reasons he was called to testify was the well-known Al Jazeera events and the uproar caused.
"After setting up a real estate company, I was asked to meet with 'wealth managers', these Al Jazeera reporters never talked about clients who had been convicted, just a client of 18 who was being unfairly litigated."
Source: Kathimerini