Police are investigating a major Limassol law firm and nine of its employed lawyers in connection with the issuance of “golden passports” to four investors, three Russian nationals and one Venezuelan, as well as to their spouses and minor children. The firm had attempted to quash a second search warrant executed on October 8, 2024 to prevent use of seized material against it, but the Supreme Court (First Instance Jurisdiction) on Wednesday fully accepted Attorney General George Savvides’ position and rejected the annulment bid.
The second warrant was sought after CID Headquarters found that files and correspondence had been deleted from the firm’s central server. Those deletions were detected during the evaluation of material gathered in an earlier, court-authorised search on April 5, 2024. To restore the missing evidence, police forensic experts used specialised software to recover deleted or altered data from the mail server, data server and selected workstations, without inspecting unrelated content, to preserve legal privilege. Live forensic images were created on site, stored on police external drives, sealed in the presence of firm representatives, and mirror copies were handed to the firm. The recovered data were then processed through automated analysis based on pre-defined keywords, again avoiding manual review of irrelevant material.
The Supreme Court’s decision is considered pivotal: it clears the way for investigators to use all evidence seized and subsequently restored from the firm’s systems. The Legal Service will now study the police file to decide whether prosecutions are warranted. For the time being, the name of the law firm and the individual lawyers under scrutiny are not being published, as no charging decision has yet been made.
Six potential offences under review
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Conspiracy to defraud (Art. 302, Cap. 154)
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Conspiracy to commit felonies (Art. 371, Cap. 154)
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Anti–money laundering offences under Law 188(I)/2007 (Arts. 3, 4, 5, 27)
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False statements (Art. 116(1), Population Registry Law 141(I)/2002)
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Failure to comply with laws and regulations (Art. 88, Population Registry Law 141(I)/2002)
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Forgery of travel documents (Art. 89(1)(e), Population Registry Law 141(I)/2002)
According to police, the alleged offences were committed in the Republic of Cyprus from 2015 onwards.