Beleaguered former shipowner Michael Zolotas received a rare piece of good news in his home country of Cyprus last week, after a string of setbacks in courts around the world.
The Mediterranean island’s supreme court annulled an arrest warrant issued nearly three years ago against the head of defunct NewLead Holdings in connection with a corruption case.
Soliciting bribes
Zolotas had been living in neighbouring Greece when Cypriot authorities served him with the arrest warrant.
The warrant led to Zolotas' arrest and extradition to Cyprus in December 2016 where he faced charges of enabling money laundering in a real estate transaction, in which a former central banker has been charged with soliciting bribes.
Zolotas was released on bail but has since been regularly attending proceedings at the Nicosia felony court where the case is being heard, according to his lawyer.The shipowner was caught in the crosshairs of the Cypriot justice system after a company he owned paid €1m to a firm belonging to the daughter of Christodoulos Christodoulou, who had recently retired as governor of the country’s central bank
However, the supreme court has now ruled that the warrant was unlawful because it violated Greek sovereignty.
And now the warrant has been cancelled, his legal team will argue that the trial should be halted and the charges dropped.
Five-year sentence
“We will certainly file that request,” his attorney, Achilles Emilianides, told TradeWinds.
The shipowner was caught in the crosshairs of the Cypriot justice system after a company he owned paid €1m to a firm belonging to the daughter of Christodoulos Christodoulou, who had recently retired as governor of the country’s central bank.
Prosecutors allege this was a bribe Zolotas paid on behalf of a lender of his, Greek businessman Andreas Vgenopoulos, who ran a Cypriot bank at the time.
Zolotas has denied the charge, saying the payment was a consultancy fee for work on property deals.
His defence also argues that the case should be tried under Greek law, in which it would fall under a statute of limitation.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if found guilty.
Zolotas’ business partner Vgenopoulos died in November 2016. At the time of his death, he was seeking €1.2bn in compensation from the government of Cyprus at the Paris-headquartered International Court of Arbitration.
Debt crisis
The case hit back at authorities, which had filed charges against him over alleged wrongdoings in connection with his failed lender Popular Bank (Laiki), whose collapse in 2013 sparked Cyprus’ debt crisis and international bailout.
The case in Cyprus is only one of Zolotas' problems.
In May last year, a New York appellate court allowed Serge Turko, principal of TransAsia Commodities, to proceed in enforcing a collection of $22.3m in damages by Zolotas' US-listed NewLead Holdings and key subsidiaries.
