Cyprus Bailout Talks Stalled: Money Laundering Accusations Could Delay Aid

[sysop]

Talks on a euro-zone bailout for Cyprus could be delayed by accusations reported in SPIEGEL that the island is helping rich Russians launder money. Cyprus has denied the accusations but is likely to come under increasing pressure to reform its financial sector to secure aid.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-865580.html

[gandolph]

The sad fact is Cyprus will promise anything and everything to get their hands on the money and I absolutely guarantee they will then default. Defaulting on loans is a national pastime in Cyprus, as was bouncing cheques. This was evidenced by everything having to be paid for in cash; even registering a vehicle had to be paid for in cash because so many people failed to honour their cheques. The same mentality now prevails throughout the land with corruption being almost mandatory throughout every walk of life from the humble plumber to the most senior lawyer and politician. The title deeds fiasco is a good example. A tourist, once he runs the gauntlet of airport taxi drivers who refuse point blank to use the meter and who will ultimately charge three times the fair for a short journey, will be bombarded by advertisements from estate agents and developers who will promise the earth, moon and stars as a well used method of separating you from your money, sanity, health and anything they can take. Often when the unsuspecting punter signs the downpayment for his 'luxury villa' the developer doesn't even own the land said villa will nestle on so a great deal of wheeling and dealing will be done in a very quick and very sloppy fashion. The developer is able to get huge loans to buy the land but there is nothing to ensure he uses the cash for that purpose and indeed there is a well known case in the Paphos area where the developer gained enormous loans and never paid paid a penny back to the bank. Yet he was granted more loans including one of €1 million to build his own house and this was granted long after the bank knew he was in great financial difficulties. The thinking behind this is the knowledge that in the even the developer defaults on his laon, the bank can not only repossess the land, under Cyprus law they are entitled to grab whatever has been built on it. Thus is the plight of several hundred pensioners at the hands of this particular developer and bank whom the police so far have failed to investigate. There are rumbles of collusion and fraud involving Alpha bank, the developer and various lawyers (who don't even carry out a search for their vastly inflated fee) but the bottom line could be that if a bailout is granted, this bank will dip it's sticky fingers into the trough and a great deal of money will be shared among a few well placed people. If I was given to handing out advice I'd tell the good people of Germany to give Cyprus the widest berth possible and refuse any loan they ask for.