Cypriot ‘Lagarde list’ spurs denials, as MPs want to track down tax cheats

COMPANIES registered in Caribbean islands by Cypriot law firms or consultancies form the bulk of the list of Cyprus-affiliated entries with deposits in HSBC Switzerland, daily Politis reported yesterday.

The paper claimed to have obtained access to the full list of 106,000 depositors in the Swiss bank during 2006 and 2007, from which it established that entries with links to Cyprus were 1,343.

However, only a handful of these – three – were Cyprus-registered companies, and even fewer – two – were actual people.

The rest, the paper said, are offshore companies registered in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, but are linked to Cyprus via well-known local law firms or consultancies whose addresses are listed for correspondence to these entities.

Of the 1,343 entries found by Politis, 722 were tagged “active”, 381 were “dormant”, 52 were marked “liquidated” and 162 “transferred”.

The revelations were accompanied with the disclaimer that holding overseas accounts neither proves, nor implies illegal or inappropriate activities by the account holders or the account administrators.

Speaking on state radio, deputy Attorney-general Rikkos Erotokritou said Legal Services will request the list from the International Monetary Fund in order to investigate whether tax has been paid on the deposited revenues.

“When the list arrives at Legal Services, we will be able to investigate any tax offences, or possibly other offences, like money laundering, and establish the source of these funds,” he said.

And in a follow-up to his remarks from Tuesday, when the story first broke, Ethics committee acting chairman Demetris Syllouris said the parliamentary committee would be inviting former Finance ministers dating back to 2010, so they could explain why the list was not obtained since then.

Meanwhile, another list pertaining to taxation dues, leaked earlier this week, has caused a wave of protests and denials by some named.

The Finance ministry had forwarded the names of the top 50 tax debtors to the House Ethics committee following a request by one of its deputies, along with strong warnings that making the list public was strictly prohibited by law unless reasons of “national interest” necessitated it.

But mere hours after the list was received, the names found their way to the press, causing some of those listed to publicly denounce its accuracy.

Giovani developers – a company owned by AKEL MP Christakis Giovanis – issued a statement on Wednesday, saying much of the reported €3.65m tax debt was wrongly levied on the company.

“A large part of the taxation, €1,127,000, relates to immovable property tax on sold properties,” the statement said. “We have submitted a detailed list of the buyers’ names and addresses to the Taxation Commissioner’s office, and thus this tax should not burden our company but the true owners.”

In any case, the company said, it has offered property valued higher than its tax dues to the Taxation Department as collateral, while it continues to pay its taxation as agreed with the tax authorities.

N.K. Shacolas (Holdings) Ltd, one of the highest debtors on the Finance ministry’s list with over €6.85m in dues, denied any tax debts in an announcement published yesterday.

“It is with genuine surprise and regret that we saw our company included in the list of top 50 tax debtors which was forwarded to the House and improperly leaked,” the statement said.

The company attached to its listing a letter from its accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers confirming that the company has challenged the imposition of €6.9m in taxes, with a final ruling pending.

“With due respect to government services and the parliament, we must note that we feel extremely disappointed that our company and group have unjustly suffered public vilification,” it said.

Football club APOEL, listed as owing the taxman €6.1m, also denied the figure.

“We were surprised to hear it,” chairman Prodromos Petrides told state TV earlier this week. “We owe €2.6m, which was restructured into 60 monthly installments. We have yet to miss an installment.”