Former president Anastasiades faces corruption findinds, felony in Mafia State probe

Local corruptionCrimeTop News Former president Anastasiades faces corruption findinds, felony in Mafia State probe Former President Anastasiades Testifies In 'mafia State' Book Investigation (photos) Relevant News Former president Anastasiades faces corruption findinds, felony in Mafia State probe 16 June 2026 FIFA World Cup 2026 – Group H – Spain vs Cabo Verde 16 June 2026 On this day: The entire action of the novel “Ulysses” by James Joyce takes place on this day 16 June 2026 newsroom 16 June 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Cyprus’s Independent Authority Against Corruption has found reasonable suspicion that former president Nicos Anastasiades committed seven potential corruption-related offences, including one felony count of abuse of power, in the findings of its two-year investigation into journalist Makarios Drousiotis’s book Mafia State. The Authority published its findings on Tuesday, nearly four years after Drousiotis’s book first levelled allegations of systemic corruption against Anastasiades and senior officials. The investigation was launched as a self-initiated probe in late 2022 after both presidential candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis and Anastasiades himself separately asked the watchdog to look into the claims. Four appointed inspecting officers, led by Australian international law specialist Gabrielle McIntyre alongside Cypriot lawyers Harilaos Chrysanthou, Orestis Nikitas and Andreas Efthymiou, heard testimony from around 150 witnesses across 200 sessions, including Anastasiades and Drousiotis themselves, before submitting a final report running to nearly 3,000 pages. The Authority stressed that its findings rest on the civil standard of balance of probabilities rather than the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, and reiterated that the presumption of innocence applies to everyone named, with only the courts empowered to determine guilt. Focus Maritime intervention The most serious finding against Anastasiades concerns his intervention in a police investigation into Focus Maritime, a company through which the late Laiki Bank chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos was found to have funnelled funds to political parties and figures, including DISY. Investigators found that while the Focus Maritime probe was ongoing, Anastasiades pressed then attorney-general Costas Clerides to drop it, expressing strong dissatisfaction with its progress. The Authority concluded that this potentially amounted to felony abuse of power, since the intervention came as the inquiry threatened to expose his own possible role in securing DISY funding. Separately, investigators found that Laiki Bank paid Anastasiades €250,000 in late 2011 to support his 2013 presidential campaign, disguised through two fake invoices as “introducer fees” and routed through an offshore shell company. They identified this as a case of trading in influence by Anastasiades, with former Laiki chief executive Efthymios Bouloutas implicated in facilitating it. The Rybolovleva arrest Investigators also found reasonable suspicion of trading in influence over the 2014 arrest of Elena Rybolovleva, who was detained in Cyprus during a bitter divorce dispute with Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. They concluded that Andreas Hadjikyriakos acted as intermediary between Anastasiades and Rybolovlev and facilitated an agreement under which Rybolovlev covered the cost of a private flight for Anastasiades from Brussels in March 2014, around the time of the arrest. Investigators noted the absence of any booking, payment or flight record through the presidency, Treasury or civil aviation authorities, despite a request to Anastasiades and to the family of the friend he said had paid for the trip, which went unanswered. Passports and the OCCRP and Pandora Papers reports A further abuse of power finding stems from Anastasiades’s public call in 2019 for the financial crime unit MOKAS to investigate his own law firm after the OCCRP reported alleged money laundering links. Investigators found MOKAS had already received a formal referral about the same transactions eight days earlier but took no action until Anastasiades spoke publicly, after which the unit cleared the firm of wrongdoing within months. A separate finding concerns the 2010 citizenship application of Russian businessman Alexander Abramov, in which investigators found Anastasiades, then an MP and DISY leader, met personally with the then interior minister over the file. Dromolaxia land dispute The final misdemeanour finding relates to a disputed Vakouf property in Dromolaxia, where Anastasiades intervened, including pressing then attorney-general Costas Clerides to revisit the Land Registry’s position and facilitating an unlawful buffer zone crossing by a claimant, to help a private company secure development rights. Investigators found no personal financial benefit and described the interventions as apparently well-intentioned, but said they fell outside the president’s constitutional remit. The same investigation produced findings against several other individuals, including a former district court president over an alleged judicial bribery scheme, a former assistant attorney-general, a senior police officer and a former head of MOKAS (see accompanying table). The Authority said the full final report will not be published, citing the need to protect future investigative proceedings, and that it will be forwarded to the attorney-general and, separately, the tax commissioner. It noted that any allegations from the book not addressed in the announcement should be considered unproven to the required standard. No further comment will be made by the Authority beyond Tuesday’s statement. Read more: ‘Mafia State’ corruption report probe attributes criminal liability to more than ten people Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News FIFA World Cup 2026 – Group H – Spain vs Cabo Verde On this day: The entire action of the novel “Ulysses” by James Joyce takes place on this day Beyond rhetoric: Israel, Turkey, Cyprus and the remaking of the Eastern Mediterranean Anti-corruption chief briefs Anastasiades on ‘Mafia State’ findings Nicosia’s park of the future takes shape as cost climbs past €30m (photos) Trump confirms Iran deal signed, but Lebanon dispute and Israeli unease cloud breakthrough Explained: EU’s new €3 tariff on Shein, Temu orders Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.