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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Central Bank of Cyprus governor reports for work, refuses to step down

by  KG/XINHUA Central Bank of Cyprus governor Chrystalla Georgadji reported for work on Monday, refusing to step down even after President Nicos Anastasiades lambasted her publicly and all parliamentary parties demanded her resignation because of an alleged conflict of interest. "She does not consider there is any reason for her resignation," said sources of her close circle quoted by state radio. In an unusually strongly worded statement Anastasiades slammed Georgadji on Friday for abusing his trust in her to evade her legal obligations. He accused her of striking out a conflict of interest clause of her appointment contract and for failing to reveal that her daughter works as a lawyer at a law office representing former banker Andreas Vgenopoulos who is in litigation over the failure of his former bank. Vgenopoulos is one of the strongest businessmen in Greece, managing Marfin Investment Group, which owns Olympic Air, Marfin Egnatia Bank and many other companies. As former chairman of Cypriot Mafin Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, he is widely considered to be the man who caused the collapse of the Cypriot banking system in 2013. He is said to have drained Laiki of its capital by giving out loans to friends and associates in Greece without adequate collateral and burdening the bank with billions of euros in Emergency Liquidity Assistance from the European Central Bank. Laiki was wound down when Cyprus was bailed out in March, passing on to the primary lender, Bank of Cyprus, a burden of many billions of Emergency Liquidity Assistance provided by the European Central Bank.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.neurope.eu