Filenews 10 August 2021 - by Michalis Hatzivasilis
Cyprus is again in the crosshairs of the Al Jazeera net, this time in an investigation into English football, which was also the occasion to deal with the Cyprus Investment Programme and the revelations it made that led to the resignations of the Speaker of the House Dimitris Syllouris and the ACPL MP Christakis Giovanis.
In both the three audio videos he gave early yesterday afternoon and the video he later published, our country is involved by a British former Scotland Yard police officer for its investment programme, after allegedly telling al Jazeera journalists under cover that it is not difficult to give Cypriot citizenship to a foreign investor, who was interested in laundering money by buying an English football team.
In al Jazeera's three audio documents, posted on its website yesterday, journalists, operating under cover, presented themselves as representatives of a Chinese criminal with convictions for bribery and money laundering, coming very close to an agreement to acquire the Derby County football club. This is where reference is made to the Cyprus Investment Programme. Specifically, in the third audio, reference is made to the known events with the JEP and the way the team of journalists under cover in Cyprus was led and the events we saw in the Al Jazeera documentary entitled The Cyprus Papers Undercover. As shown in the videos, during their investigations al Jazeera journalists met Christopher Samuelson, a financial adviser specialising in offshore trusts and agreements for football clubs.
The key to the case is that this adviser in the 1990s allegedly transferred hundreds of millions of dollars of oligarchs out of Russia. He assures his interlocutors that he will ensure that the criminal investor they are supposed to represent will be approved by the English Football League. As shown in the video, Mr Samuelson tells Al Jazeera reporters: "I have an idea of how we can shape it so that we can beat the English Football League (EFL). I can push the Football League," he says. "We'll manage it. We're just going to make it up."
Samuelson then takes the arab network's under-cover journalists to Derby Town, where they meet Mel Morris, owner of the Derby County team, and negotiate a deal to buy the club and the stadium for £99m.
The financial adviser then tells how he and an associate, Keith Hunter - a private investigator and former Scotland Yard detective - use "dirty tricks" to facilitate deals. Samuelson and Hunter also assure that they can help covered journalists obtain a new passport for their criminal client – and give him a new identity to completely deceive the football authorities. "We've done it many, many times for others who, I can assure you, are worse off than your boss," hunter says.
At one point Keith Hunter talks to the journalists under cover about his contacts in Cyprus. This led the team of journalists under cover in Cyprus, with the known facts.
CYPRUS Minister in London CLOSED Russian case
The video refers to a case of a Russian who had fled to the UK and could not travel after being on Europort's list and a Minister of the Cypriot Government, who is not named, was found in London and at the Cypriot consulate where the case was allegedly closed. The whole process took place there without the Russian ever set foot in Cyprus, as the detective claims in the video.
Furthermore, the British explain to the journalists under cover how simple the passporting process is in Cyprus, even for persons without a clean record and wanted persons. Reference is also made to the response received by the Minister to the cost of the passport for the alleged Chinese investor, which would be issued in eight weeks provided the investment was within 10 million.
