By Kirstin Ridley and Joshua Franklin

REGULATORS fined five major banks $3.4 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, the first settlement in a year-long global investigation.

UBS, HSBC and Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan all face penalties resulting from the probe that has also put the largely unregulated $5 trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash. One regulator gave banks a 30 percent discount for settling early.

In the latest scandal to hit the financial services industry, dealers shared confidential information about client orders and coordinated trades to make money from a foreign exchange benchmark used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their holdings. Dozens of traders have been fired or suspended.

Dealers used code names to identify clients without naming them and created online chatrooms with pseudonyms such as “the players”, “the 3 musketeers” and “1 team, 1 dream” in which to swap information. Those not involved were belittled.
Switzerland’s UBS swallowed the biggest penalty paying $661 million to Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

UBS was also ordered by Swiss regulator FINMA, which also said it had found serious misconduct in precious metals trading, to hand over 134 million Swiss francs after failing to investigate a 2010 whistleblower’s report.

The misconduct at the banks stretched back to the previous decade and up until October 2013, over a year after U.S. and British authorities started punishing banks for rigging the London interbank offered rate (Libor), an interest rate benchmark.

RBS, which is 80 per cent owned by the British government, received client complaints about foreign exchange trading as far back as 2010. The bank said it regretted not responding more quickly to the complaints.

The other banks were similarly apologetic. Their shares were under pressure in European trading.

Reflecting exasperation that banks failed to stop the activity despite pledges to overhaul their culture and controls, the FCA levied a $1.7 billon fine, the biggest in the history of the City, but gave a 30 per cent discount for early settlement.

The FCA also launched a review of the spot FX industry that will require firms to scrutinise trading and compliance and may involve looking at other markets such as derivatives and precious metals.

“Today’s record fines mark the gravity of the failings we found and firms need to take responsibility for putting it right,” the FCA’s Chief Executive Martin Wheatley said.
“They must make sure their traders do not game the system to boost profits or leave the ethics of their conduct to compliance to worry about.”

Barclays, which had been in settlement talks with both the FCA and the CFTC, made a “commercial decision” to pull out of the discussions, the FCA said. Its investigation of the banks continues.
The FCA said its enforcement activities were focused on the five banks plus Barclays, signalling that Deutsche Bank would not face a
fine from it.

Lenders are expecting more penalties, however, with the U.S. Department of Justice and New York’s Department of Financial Services still investigating the scandal. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is also investigating and there is the threat of civil litigation from disgruntled customers.

The CFTC, which regulates swaps and futures in the United States, fined the five banks more than $1.4 billion as part of Wednesday’s group settlement.

Since 2012 financial firms have been fined nearly $10 billion for rigging market benchmarks.
The Bank of England said in a separate review on Wednesday, that its chief foreign exchange dealer, Martin Mallet, had not alerted his bosses that traders were sharing information.

The central bank, whose boss Mark Carney is leading global regulatory efforts to reform financial benchmarks, has dismissed Mallet but said he had not done anything illegal or improper.

It also said it had scrapped regular meetings with London-based chief currency dealers, a sign the BOE wants to put a distance between it and the banks after the scandal.

The investigation has provoked major changes to the foreign exchange market with a clamp down on chatrooms, the suspension or firing of more than 30 traders, an increase in automated trading and new regulatory changes to FX benchmarks which world leaders are expected to sign at the G20 summit in Brisbane this weekend.

FINMA has also instructed UBS to limit bonuses for traders of foreign exchange and precious metals to 200 percent of their base salary for two years.

By Victoria Bryan and Maria Sheahan

The European Space Agency (ESA) landed a probe on a comet on Wednesday, a first in space exploration and the climax of a decade-long mission to get samples from what are the remnants of the birth of Earth’s solar system.

The box-shaped 100-kg (220-pound) lander, named Philae, touched down on schedule at about 1600 GMT after a seven-hour descent from spacecraft Rosetta around half a billion kilometres (300 million miles) from Earth.

Scientists hope that samples from the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will help show how planets and life are created as the rock and ice that make up the comet preserve organic molecules like a time-capsule.

Comets come from the formation of Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old solar system. Scientists believe they may have brought much of the water in Earth’s oceans.

“We are ready to make science fiction a science fact,” ESA director of human spaceflight and operations, Thomas Reiter, said at the European Space Operations Centre in Germany before the landing.

Rosetta reached the comet, a roughly 3-by-5 km rock discovered in 1969, in August after a journey of 6.4 billion km that took 10 years, five months and four days – a mission that cost close to 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

Rosetta is the first spacecraft to orbit a comet rather than just flying past to take pictures.

Wednesday’s launch went ahead despite a problem with the thruster that meant the probe had to rely mainly on its harpoons to stop it bouncing back from the comet’s surface.

The three-legged lander had to be released at exactly the right time and speed because it cannot be controlled on its descent. On its way down, Philae gathered data and images, which were relayed back to Earth.

Engineers designed the lander not knowing what type of terrain they would find on the comet’s surface. Rosetta has been taking pictures of the comet and collecting samples from its atmosphere as it approaches the sun, showing it is not as smooth as initially hoped, making landing more tricky.

The surface is also more dusty than expected, limiting light needed to charge its solar panels and power its instruments once its batteries run out after two and a half days.

President Nicos Anastasiades is to undergo surgery on his heart’s mitral valve, the government said on Wednesday.

A written statement, Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said that on Tuesday, Anastasiades had gone for a routine checkup, which had revealed the need for surgery.

“The operation will be performed in a short time,” the statement said. Christodoulides did not given any further details.

The heart’s mitral valve lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle. It makes sure that the blood keeps moving forward. Surgery is usually to repair or replace the valve. According to medical literature minimally invasive mitral valve surgery can be done through several small cuts that would avoid open-heart surgery and would require at least three to five days hospitalisation.

Speaking on Wednesday night on the sidelines of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry AGM, which he had just addressed, Anastasiades said the surgery would not be carried out before the European Council meeting on December 17 and 18.

“Immediately after the holidays we will proceed, as the doctors recommend, with surgery to correct the evil,” Anastasiades said.

The President also has an upcoming visit to Israel on December 2 and a possible trip to Moscow by the end of the year. He said he hoped that would take place before the European Council meeting. Anastasiades is also slated to visit Abu Dhabi, and the Slovak President is due in Cyprus early in December.

Asked whether he would be resuming his duties in the new year after his operation Anastasiades said: “With the help of God”.

Anastasiades was forced to pull out of a key EU summit last month after suffering continuous nose bleeds, a result of high blood pressure, requiring him to spend two nights in a Brussels hospital.

In June this year he also spent two nights at a private clinic with persistent symptoms of gastroenteritis.

By Martyn Herman

Knock him down and one thing is certain about Tomas Berdych at the ATP World Tour Finals – he will bounce right up again.
The 29-year-old Czech has qualified for the year-ending showpiece beside the River Thames five years in succession and each time he has lost his opening match.

On Monday he crashed 6-1 6-1 to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka but, true to form, he rebounded to win his second group match at the 02 Arena on Wednesday, outclassing Marin Cilic 6-3 6-1.

Just as his opening match record is lamentable, albeit his tormentors have been Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Wawrinka twice, his second match record now reads 5-0.
So what transformed the world number seven from a pussycat to a tiger in the space of two days?

“I think that’s the beauty of this event,” he told reporters after keeping alive his hopes of claiming a semi-final spot with a top-two finish in Group A.
“One day you can be swept out from the court like I was and in two days’ time you can come up and play different tennis.
“Basically there were no miracles in that time in between the matches. I just had a good practice session yesterday, good rest, refocused again, and ready to go for another match.”

Berdych was certainly a far different proposition to the one that was thumped by Wawrinka.
He broke Cilic’s serve in the first game of the match and, after saving two break points at 4-3, never looked back.

Berdych said he faced “mission impossible” after his opening loss and while he is at least still in the mix, the odds are stacked against him with Djokovic his third opponent.

The last time they played, in the Beijing final a few weeks ago, Berdych managed two games.
“I’m going to try to maybe win three, four games. That would be better from the last time,” he joked.
“As I said after my first match, it couldn’t be worse than that. So let’s see. It’s pretty much the same scenario for that. It couldn’t be much worse.
“It’s always a huge challenge to play the number one player in the world. The way he’s playing, where we are playing, it’s pretty much all set up for him and for his game.
“But I’m going to bring all that is left in me.”

By Martyn Herman

Ruthless world number one Novak Djokovic thrashed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3 6-0 as he closed in on a stunning climax to his season at the ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday night.

The Serb responded to losing the first two games to steamroller the Swiss who was unfortunate to meet the defending champion at his imperious best.
Djokovic tops Group A with two wins and is now poised to qualify for the semi-finals.

Djokovic, who will clinch the year-end number one ranking should he beat Tomas Berdych in his final round-robin match, dialled in his A game to counter an aggressive start by Australian Open champion Wawrinka, winning 20 of 23 points in a five-game burst from 0-2 down in the first set.

Poor Wawrinka, a semi-finalist here in London’s O2 centre last year, was run ragged at times by the power, precision and finesse of the 27-year-old Djokovic who racked up a 29th consecutive indoor victory with laser-guided forehand winner.

All eight round-robin matches have so far been decided in straight sets.

Earlier, American world number one doubles duo Mike and Bob Bryan got back to winning ways as they came from a set down to

By Evie Andreou

OFFICIALS from the Troika mission of international lenders are to meet with representatives of the parties to discuss the insolvency package bill Thursday afternoon.

During a 90-minute meeting at the Finance ministry, the representatives will discuss the plan of personal insolvency – imposed without the consent of the creditors, the potential of the insolvency framework and whether it ensures the primary home and business, as well as the process for suspension of foreclosures to facilitate the restructuring of mortgages without the necessary consent of the creditors.

The Cyprus News Agency said that the finance ministry has asked the parties’ representatives to add the subjects they would like to discuss.

The insolvency framework comprises the bill on the debt restructuring of viable businesses (examinership), the bill on the modernisation of liquidation process, the introduction of viable business debt restructuring and management (administration), introduction and implementation of restructuring options for natural persons, as well debt relief orders.

By George Psyllides

THE competition watchdog said on Wednesday it was reviewing a five-year-old ruling where fuel companies were fined €43m for collusion but it was thrown out on a technicality.

Speaking in parliament, the head of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) said a review was underway and she could not provide more information.

The review “is substantive and not a formality,” Loukia Christodoulou told MPs who wanted to know the reasons for the delay.

“Because it is an open case, I cannot provide details as to which stage we are on because it could possibly affect future developments,” Christodoulou said.

The commission’s main concern is for cases to be built carefully so that they could not be disputed.

In August 2009, the CPC found that fuel companies were engaging in price collusion and unfair trade practices.

The then head, Costakis Christoforou, slapped a €43m fine on the companies, which filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.

The companies succeeded in quashing the probe on a technicality: they argued that Christoforou did not meet the necessary qualifications to head the CPC.

The May 2011 Supreme Court decision was unanimous.

The CPC found the four – EKO Hellenic Petroleum, Petrolina, Lukoil and Exxon Mobil – guilty of “concerted practice”, a term meaning the informal and tacit understanding between firms to influence the conduct of the market.

The violations refer to the period from October 2004 to late 2006.

Christodoulou said it was a complicated case, which started a decade ago. The commission has since seen five chairpersons and had remained without one for seven months at some stage.

Instructions to review the case were given in 2012. After that, three of four officers handling the case left the service when their contracts expired and new ones were hired.

Christodoulou said the commission was chronically understaffed while the needs, especially during a recession, were rising.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE Cyprus Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) board of directors has decided to suspend Tourism official Michalis Metaxas, pending the conclusion of a probe into irregularities in assigning an advertising contract in 2013, and to withdraw its support towards CTO executive head Marios Hannides, it emerged on Wednesday.

During a meeting on Tuesday night, the board discussed reports prepared by the CTO’s internal auditor and the Tourism ministry’s audit service.

These appeared to implicate the two in expenditure that was authorised without board approval.

According to daily Politis, Metaxas was involved in the commissioning of marketing firm Vivacity, using unutilised funds in the 2013 promotional budget without inviting tenders per due process.

It also claimed that the board’s decision to withdraw its support towards Hannides was the result of friction caused by a repeated failure of the organisation’s employees to follow its instructions, and a general attitude of contempt by executive management towards the board of directors.

Specifically, it added, a recent incident relating to the benefits paid to two CTO employees in Amsterdam and Moscow was indicative of the tension between the two sides.

Despite various recommendations from the organisation’s legal advisor and the Finance ministry, who said that retaining the benefits for the overseas employees was illegal as the Cyprus government abolished them in 2005, Metaxas proposed to the board that the employees’ standard salary is revised to reflect the current salary plus benefits.

This would bring the employees’ basic salary to an excess of €7,000.

It is understood that the board decision with regard to Hannides alludes to his removal from the post of CTO executive director.

But sources cited by Sigmalive web portal claim that any board decision to oust him requires the approval of the cabinet – as in the case of his appointment.

By Evie Andreou

THE state broadcaster’s board will embark on a set of discussions to review a feasibility study and decide on an action plan that will ensure its survival, it said on Wednesday.

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation’s (CyBC) board said that the findings of the study, commissioned by the Interior ministry, will be the object of several meetings and that they will show due sensitivity in employee issues.

The announcement followed Interior minister Socratis Hasikos’ comments in parliament on Monday that the study provides for the redundancy of around 100 staff in order to save €3,169,484 per year.

The CyBC board also said that they will initiate a dialogue with the unions, the parliament and the government in order to create a strategic plan to reform and restructure the public station.

The largest reductions are suggested in support and other services, where 49 to 60 people should leave, while it also provides that seven or eight of the 23 music producers must also leave. Four or five sports journalists are also slated to leave, as well as 6 to 9 people from the Turkish programmes.

News presenters are to be reduced to six or eight with the dismissal of up to six, and a further eight from the news zone should also leave.

The study also provides for the lay-off of four radio producers and six from the TV programmes.

Hasikos also said that for a number of years money that should have gone to the employees’ pension fund ended up being spent on buying television programmes and that the €105m deficit of the fund could leave retired employees without pensions next year.

He also said that CyBC would need an additional €2m before the end of the year as the €24.3m state subsidy for 2014 will not cover all the year’s expenses.

Trade union PEO said that it would not accept a single lay-off and that it was ready to resort to drastic actions if this occurred.

“The management is making a serious effort to reduce and rationalise expenses, while since the first day, the board has been working with a basic goal to upgrade public television so that it justifies its mission,” the board said.

Apart from the lay-offs, the study also suggests that CyBC needs to adopt more modern methods in news presentation like video projections and live discussions, and to enrich and renew its existing cultural programmes or introduce new ones that project people of the arts and academia and take advantage of its rich archive.

The study also suggests that the broadcaster needs to find low budget children’s shows that would enrich the younger zone in order to increase ratings.

Weaknesses identified in the study include time-consuming processes for funding and budget approvals, problems in decision making due to differences among departments, lack of a modern electronic systems that estimate costs of TV programmes and productions that usually attract older viewers or listeners at the expense of a younger audience.

By George Psyllides

MPs think €590,000 was not enough to pay for their trips abroad and to entertain foreign officials in Cyprus and are threatening to retaliate by rejecting the travel and hospitality budgets of other government departments.

Instead of the €650,000 parliament wanted, the finance ministry approved €590,000, prompting the disapproval of DIKO chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos who played the patriotic card while describing it as an intervention into the affairs of the legislature.

The parliament’s director, Vasiliki Anastasiadou, said the €60,000 cut prevented it from developing its legislative diplomacy.

As a country with a political problem, there was a need for parliament to participate in meetings and to reciprocate hospitality and organise conferences in Cyprus, she said.

DIKO’s Papadopoulos said his party could reject all such funds unless the whole policy governing such matters was put under review.

“I ought to note, and I think I am conveying the Finance committee’s unanimous view, that parliamentary missions abroad are a basic activity,” he said. “Parliamentary diplomacy is necessary during a period when we want to convey our country’s positions abroad, especially considering Turkey’s recent illegal violations.”

Papadopoulos said the government was making the effort harder by cutting their funds by €60,000.

He also suggested that the cut “constitutes an intervention by the executive.”

His party, Papadopoulos said, was looking into the possibility to reject all the travel and hospitality budgets of government departments “unless the broader policy of allocating such funds is reviewed.”

By Maria Sheahan

A probe that landed on a comet in a first for space exploration has ended up in the shadow of a cliff, about a kilometre (0.6 miles) from its intended resting place, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.

The lander, named Philae, was released from its mothership Rosetta on Wednesday as it orbited comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in the climax of a 10-year mission for the ESA.

But harpoons to anchor it to the surface failed to deploy and it bounced twice before floating to rest two hours later. The ESA needs to analyse data beamed half a billion kilometres (300 million miles) back to Earth to pinpoint its location.

“Where we are is not entirely where we wanted to be,” lead lander scientist Jean-Pierre Biebring told a news conference.

The ESA has published pictures of the comet and images of the 100-kg (220-pound) lander – virtually weightless on the comet’s rocky surface – and said it was operating normally.

“Do not put the emphasis on the failures of the system, it is gorgeous where we are now,” Biebring said.

In the shadows, Philae’s solar panels, which were meant to power the probe when its batteries run out on Friday, get only an hour and a half of sunlight a day, instead of the expected six to seven hours.

The probe could try to use its landing gear to hop out of the shadows but ESA will need to know more exactly where it is before attempting the risky manoeuvre, scientists at the ESA’s space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, said.

The lander also appears to have only two of its three feet on the ground, raising questions about whether it can drill without tipping over or pushing itself off into space.

Scientists hope that samples drilled from the comet by Philae will unlock details about how the planets – and possibly even life – evolved. The rock and ice that make up comets preserve ancient organic molecules like a time capsule.

Comets date back to the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists suspect comets delivered water to Earth when they collided with the planet aeons ago.

The ESA said even without the drill, the Rosetta mission – which costs about 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion) – was relaying groundbreaking data and images.

By Angus MacSwan

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called for attacks in Saudi Arabia, said his caliphate was expanding across the Arab world, and called for “volcanoes of jihad” in a speech purported to be in his name on Thursday.

Baghdadi also said a US-led military campaign against his group in Syria and Iraq was failing. Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the speech, which was carried on jihadist websites.

There have been contradictory accounts out of Iraq following US air strikes on Friday about whether Baghdadi was wounded in a raid. The United States said on Tuesday it could not confirm whether he was killed or wounded in Iraq following a strike near the city of Falluja.

The speech was not dated but carried a reference to a Nov. 7 US announcement that President Barack Obama had approved sending up to 1,500 more US troops to Iraq.

“O sons of al-Haramayn (Saudi Arabia)…the serpent’s head and the stronghold of the disease are there…draw your swords and divorce life, because there should be no security for the Saloul,” Baghdadi said, using a derogatory term to refer to the leadership of Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq, declaring a caliphate over territory it controls in June. Baghdadi said he had accepted oaths of allegiance from supporters in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

“Oh soldiers of the Islamic State…erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere. Light the earth with fire against all dictators,” Baghdadi said.

Referring to US-led military action against his group, he said: “Despite this Crusade campaign being the most fierce and severe of all, it is the greatest failure.”

“We see America and its allies stumbling in fear, weakness, impotence and failure.”

By Thomas Grove and Natalia Zinets

Moscow and Kiev traded accusations on Thursday of failing to observe a ceasefire agreement and Russia warned a resumption of hostilities against pro-Russian separatists in the east would be catastrophic for Ukraine.

Ukraine accused Russia of sending soldiers and weapons to help rebels launch a new offensive in a conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people.

Increasing violence, ceasefire violations and reports of unmarked armed convoys travelling from the direction of the Russian border have boosted fears that a shaky Sept. 5 truce could collapse.

Moscow denies accusations it sent in troops and tanks in the past few days and says the ceasefire as outlined by the Minsk protocol is the only way out of the conflict.

“(The collapse of the ceasefire) must not be allowed … It would be catastrophic for the situation in Ukraine,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

European rights and security watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is monitoring the ceasefire, has reported several columns of unmarked soldiers and tanks travelling away from the Russian border.

A Reuters reporter saw a 50-vehicle column travelling toward the rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday armed with rocket launchers and artillery guns.

Fresh shelling rocked Donetsk though it was unclear who was shooting or whether it came from the city’s airport, where Ukrainian troops and rebels are fighting for control despite the truce.

Kiev, which has boosted its defences in eastern Ukraine in case of a new offensive, says reports of the columns back up its accusations that Russia is sending reinforcements to the rebels. A military spokesman said four Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the past 24 hours.

Zoryan Shkiryak, an aid to Ukraine’s interior minister warned at a briefing in Kiev: “The likelihood of another possible invasion by Russian troops of Ukrainian territory is high … it could happen at any moment.”

In remarks published on Thursday, Ukraine’s representative to the OSCE told an Austrian newspaper it was now hardly possible to speak of a ceasefire, citing 2,400 alleged breaches of the truce by rebels.

The ceasefire has been underpinned by a series of agreements known as the Minsk protocols, signed by Russia, Ukraine and rebels from the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“There is no intention of abandoning it (the ceasefire) despite all … attempts to break these agreements by the Russian side,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

By Thomas Escritt

Two Dutch F16 fighter jets, part of a NATO force patrolling the skies above the Baltic states, intercepted a Russian Ilyushin transport aircraft flying near Estonian and Lithuanian air space, the Netherlands said on Thursday.

After the interception, which took place late on Wednesday, the Ilyushin flew off in the direction of the Russian city of Kaliningrad, the Dutch defence ministry said in a statement.

The exclave of Kaliningrad is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members as are the other two Baltic states Estonia and Latvia.

The Dutch defence ministry said in a statement the Ilyushin had been flying in international air space but had been intercepted when it approached the air space of the two countries without filing a flight plan.

It said the plane did not intrude into their air space as an earlier ministry statement had said.

Last month, NATO said it had conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft this year, about three times as many as in 2013, amid sharply increased tensions between the West and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

The Western military alliance has recently reported increased levels of Russian military activity in the skies above the Baltic Sea. Last month, Norway scrambled F-16s to track four Russian bombers.

President Vladimir Putin has committed to reinvigorating Russia’s armed forces, which had been undermined by the economic troubles that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. He denies any aggression towards NATO.

Members of the US-led NATO alliance have stepped up their vigilance since the Ukraine crisis erupted earlier this year.

On Thursday the defence ministers of Britain, the three Baltic states and four Nordic countries – NATO members Norway and Denmark and neutral Finland and Sweden – agreed to step up cooperation on intelligence and air force training to counter Moscow’s increased activity in northern Europe.

By George Psyllides

MARIANNA Georghadji, daughter of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) governor, has quit the family law firm embroiled in conflict of interest allegations.

In a brief statement late on Thursday, she said she was leaving the firm while insisting that in her opinion “no conflict of interest whatsoever exists.”

She would cut off all her ties to the law firm, she added.

The surprise announcement seemed to put an end to the saga involving herself and her mother, Chrystalla Georghadji, who heads up the Central Bank.

It came within hours of a terse statement issued by the law office belonging to the centralbanker’s former husband, charging that the truth was distorted as regards their relation and claims of conflict of interest.

The firm, Andreas Georghadjis Ltd, said there was an effort by certain mass media to hurt the CBC governor by suggesting that their representation of former Laiki strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos created a conflict of interest because of the presence of her daughter, Marianna, at the law firm.

The firm said that it being targeted because of its relation to Vgenopoulos could be hurting its clients’ interests.

“Only in this case will we examine the possibility of withdrawing,” it said.

The company said it had been hired by Vgenopoulos in December 2012 to handle Marfin Investment Group cases, none of which were against the Republic and CBC.

It said that it neither handled the dispute between MIG or 18 other Laiki shareholders, including Vgenopoulos, against the Republic, which has gone to international arbitration.

In an earlier written statement, the firm said the cases are being handled by Andreas Georghadjis and Nicolas Thrasyvoulou.

“Marianna Georghadji has no involvement whatsoever in these cases,” it added.

Marianna joined the firm in January 2014. It is said that she did so because her father is suffering from a serious illness.

Georghadji was appointed CBC governor in April this year, following the resignation of Panicos Demetriades.

The firm said she had nothing to do with them, nor did she have any dealings with the company when she was Auditor-general.

“On the contrary, the Governor does not preside over the resolution authority when it discusses cases that concern Andreas Georghadjis Ltd, to eliminate any claims about conflict of interest.”

As an example of the “scale of the distortion of the facts and twisting of the truth,” the company said, a DIKO spokesperson claimed that Vgenopoulos had transferred the case to Georghadjis from the law office that Marianna used to work for, after she moved.

The matter emerged a couple of months ago but it became the focus when President Nicos Anastasiades launched a scathing attack against her for the alleged removal of wording in her contract pertaining to conflict of interest arising from blood relatives, and accusing her of lying about encounters she claimed to have had with him.

By Martyn Herman

Roger Federer annihilated Andy Murray 6-0 6-1 to seal top spot in Group B at the ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday night and send the shell-shocked home favourite crashing out of the tournament.

Murray managed only eight points in the first set as his hopes of reaching the semi-finals disappeared.
Federer led 6-0 5-0 and 30-0 on Murray’s serve and missed a simple volley that would have given him three match points for a so-called ‘double bagel’.
Murray battled back and finally won a game to huge cheers from the sell-out O2 crowd, although his respite was a brief one as Federer wrapped up a 55-minute win.

Kei Nishikori’s earlier three-set win over alternate David Ferrer ensured Federer had reached the semi-finals even before taking to court against Murray, while the Briton knew only a straight sets win would be enough for him.
Federer ended any confusion in emphatic style, handing out a fearful first-set beating to the man who he lost to in the Olympic singles final at Wimbledon in 2012.

Cracking winners at will against a demoralised Murray, the 33-year-old Swiss maestro silenced the Murray fans in the crowd with a formidable onslaught.
It was Murray’s worst defeat since losing to Novak Djokovic 6-1 6-0 in 2007.

By Jean Christou

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos celebrated his name day on Thursday, giving out free cake at the Archbishopric, having lunch with the President, and weighing in on issues ranging from poverty to politics.

He also received visits from members of the public, officials, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim and other religious leaders, such as Turkish Cypriot Mufti Talip Atalay.

The Primate said the financial crisis had forced the Church to put on hold some development projects so that it could tend to the poor.

“Unfortunately, some of our people are hungry,” he said, adding however that the Church was engaged in investment efforts to try and create jobs.

Referring to the Turkish violations of the island’s exclusive economic zone, he urged that the issue be approached calmly by the Greek Cypriot side because “Turkey was daily exposing itself”.

He himself was working closely with the Mufti, he said, to bring peace. In that respect, he said, he had spoken with Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides giving his blessing to a visit to the Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaca for Turkish Cypriots on November 22. He said the minister had agreed.

The Mufti wished the Archbishop a happy name day and thanked him for his intervention in the Tekke visit. “This is particularly important for the Muslims of the island,” he said. Atalay said he and the Archbishop would continue to work together to achieve a lasting peace in Cyprus.

The Mufti declined to comment on the EEZ issue, saying he did not wish to become mixed up in it.

“It is not our job, as religious leaders to get involved in politics, but the cooperation of the religious leaders can facilitate the work of the politicians,” he added.

At the palace, the Archbishop and President Nicos Anastasiades both spoke of the close cooperation between Church and state.

A 78-year-old man suffered a horrific death on Thursday when he was crushed by a tractor he was operating in the Kalokedara-Salamiou area in the Paphos distict.

The deceased, Constantinos Christodoulou Ioannou, from Salamiou village, was found in a field by his son around 5pm.

The man had set off for work in the morning. His family had grown increasingly worried throughout the day as they were calling him on his mobile phone but he was not picking up.

Paphos police are investigating the precise circumstances of the incident.

By Jean Christou

THE Bank of Cyprus (BoC) said on Thursday it was preparing to return to the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) and the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) next month.

“The bank has filed a draft prospectus with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission with respect to the listing of its unlisted ordinary shares on the CSE and ATHEX, and the retail offer,” BoC said in a statement.

“Subject to obtaining required regulatory approvals, the prospectus is expected to be issued within the next couple of weeks and the listing is expected to occur in December.”

Shareholders are required to have an active Investor Share Code and Securities account with the CSE or the Dematerialised Securities System (DSS) of the Hellenic Exchanges in order for ordinary shares to be credited to their account so that they will be able to trade these shares as soon as they are admitted to trading, BoC said.

The bank said it had on several occasions contacted its shareholders that hold ordinary shares as a result of the bail-in by post; the latest letter to these shareholders requested that the relevant information related to their Investor Share Code and Securities account on the CSE or the DSS be provided by November 24.

The bank urged all shareholders that do not have an account number with the CSE or the DSS to apply directly to an brokerage firm or custodian in Cyprus or Greece in order to proceed with the opening of these accounts and provide the relevant details to the Shares and Loan Stock Department of the bank (via fax no +357 22336258/+357 22336261 or via email at shares@bankofcyprus.com ).

If shareholders do not have an account number or if the information provided by shareholders to the Shares and Loan Stock Department is incorrect or incomplete, the ordinary shares held by these shareholders will be credited in their name to an Investor Share Code with the CSE which will be inactive unless and until shareholders take appropriate action to activate this account and pay the relevant fees.

“This process may be difficult and time consuming and will cause delays in a shareholder’s ability to trade the shares on the CSE and ATHEX,” said the bank.

The bank said will cease to effect share transfers via its Shares and Loan Stock Department as of 3pm on November 21. Once the unlisted ordinary shares are admitted to listing and trading on the CSE and ATHEX, the procedure for the transfer of shares as per the bank’s announcement of January 20, 2014 will cease to apply.

The record date for the retail offer will also be 3pm on November 21.

BoC shares have been suspended since March 2013, after which the bank converted large deposits into stock to recapitalise as well as taking on the assets and liabilities of defunct Laiki Bank.

In August this year, BoC shareholders overwhelmingly approved a €1.0bn capital raise.

The pre-emptive move ensured that the bank absorbed the capital shortfall that emerged from the ECB comprehensive assessment carried out by the European Central Bank last month.

LIMASSOL district court on Thursday sentenced a Drug Squad police officer to six months in jail after he pleaded guilty to stealing cash which had been confiscated as evidence in drugs-related cases.

The offences, dating back to 2007, came to light in 2011 when during the course of the court trials of the cases it emerged that 5,330 pounds (€9114) and 1,990 pounds (€3402), respectively, were missing from the evidence.

The 41-year-old officer initially claimed to have no knowledge of the missing cash, however he subsequently admitted to taking the money.

In pronouncing sentence, the court said it was exercising the maximum leniency on the defendant, but also noted that the fact he is a law enforcement officer made the offence even more serious.