in-cyprus 4 April 2023 - by Annie Charalambous
Credit Suisse bank which is currently under surveillance by both the Swiss and US authorities for suspicious activities was again targeted by the Americans in 2019, Philenews reports citing international media.
The reason for this was a case involving a Venezuelan banker with a Cypriot nationality whom a U.S. Treasury Department sanctions notice called him a ‘testaferro’. That is, a financial front man hiding money for corrupt Venezuelan politicians.
Leonardo González Dellán was sanctioned by the US for corruption in 2019, a week only after he got the Cyprus passport.
It is worth noting that a Nicosia-based Commission of Inquiry into naturalisations granted by exemption had recommended the revocation of Dellan’s Cypriot passport – but for different reasons.
Specifically, because of failure to comply with the conditions of his naturalization, the Commission’s report also said.
It added: “The investor’s naturalisation was decided on 2/1/2019 and a few days later, in January 2019, the US imposed sanctions on the investor due to his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal.
“It is possible that the possibility of deprivation of naturalization should be considered as from the information within the file and, from information received from the Ministry of Finance, the investor had not fulfilled the obligation set by the Council of Ministers, namely to submit to the Ministries of Interior and Finance, every year, a certificate of progress of the construction works of the property and after its completion, a certificate of delivery of the property to the investor. In particular, the provider appears not to have responded to the letter from the Ministry of Finance dated December 31, 2005 and December 5, 2019.”
