By Elias Hazou

Police are investigating another case of possible corruption where a senior cadre of a cooperative bank was re-hired as a consultant by the same company just a day after retiring with a generous bonus.

The criminal probe is the result of an investigation by auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides, who has been looking into mismanagement in the co-operative banking sector.

Michaelides reported his findings to the attorney-general in late October, daily Phileleftheros reports.

The man under investigation took early retirement from the bank in 2011, after 24 years of service. He collected a handsome €500,000 tax-free payout.

On the very next day of his resignation, he was hired as a consultant by the same bank, receiving a salary and benefits amounting to €120,000 per annum.

What’s more, the position he vacated at the bank was then given to his son.

After the financial meltdown of 2013, the man left his position as consultant, getting another €70,000 payout.

His son resigned from the bank in 2015.

The auditor-general discovered that the position in question at the co-operative bank had been a family affair for the past 50 years or so, passing from the grandfather, to the son (the man now under investigation) and latterly to the grandson.

Meanwhile authorities are investigating dozens of cases where loans worth hundreds of millions of euro were granted by co-operatives to friends, associates and relatives, on favourable terms and without the required collateral.

One case involves former co-op boss Erotokritos Chlorakiotis, who allegedly received loans worth €10.9m from the Strovolos co-op which he did not repay.

In 2014 and 2015 the Cooperative Central Bank, the island’s second largest lender, received almost €1.67bn in taxpayer money to plug its capital shortfall.

As a condition for the bailout, 93 separate credit institutions were merged into a single entity.

Now known as the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, the lender recently reported non-performing loans of €6.7bn on its books, down from €7.2bn in December last year.





