Filenews 22 March 2024 - by Fanis Makrides
The Registrar of Companies and Bar Association are investigating curious changes in a Cypriot company linked to Intellexa and Predator.
In the frame and the recent US sanctions on natural and legal persons of the Intellexa Group Submission of documents after 39 months and placement of an official without his knowledge.
The latest journalistic revelations about the case with the Predator surveillance software, the widely known Intellexa group that promotes it, and the curious differences in a business entity registered with the Registrar of Companies, are already occupying competent bodies in Cyprus.
At the same time, it is not excluded that the case may be forwarded in the form of a complaint to the Police for investigation. The above results from official information received by "F" from the Department of the Registrar of Companies of Cyprus, but also from the Cyprus Bar Association.
The competent department of the Republic and the official body of lawyers in Cyprus, respectively, are already conducting an investigation in order to determine whether there is any issue of irregularities/illegalities in relation to licensed administrative service providers in Cyprus.
This is because documents submitted to the Cypriot company Santinomo, interconnected with the Intellexa Group and Predator, shortly after the US sanctions against this Group, raise questions of legality. Recently, and shortly after these US restrictive measures, backdated documents were submitted to this Cypriot company, showing changes in its management structure, which were made 39 months ago. At the same time, an official of the same business entity declares ignorance of his name being placed on its board of directors. These are precisely the two points that make the investigation of the case imperative.
Facts and background
The events that surfaced last Wednesday by Inside Story and the newspaper "Politis", concern changes made to the Cypriot company Santinomo Ltd, which has been linked to the interests of Intellexa. This group of companies, whose product range features the Predator surveillance software, was founded by Israeli businessman Tal Dillian. The latter had a cycle of activities in Cyprus, as evidenced in the black van case.
Intellexa later moved operations to Greece. The Group was heavily occupied by Greek media in the summer of 2022, as until then it was known that through the Predator software, software contamination attacks were carried out on the phones of Greek journalist, Thanasis Koukakis and PASOK President Nikos Androulakis. In the case of the former, in fact, it was scientifically found that his phone was monitored with this spyware (spring 2022).
The Intellexa Group returned to the spotlight on the 5th of this month, following the new sanctions of the US Department's agency, OFAC, against individuals and companies associated with it. In particular, restrictions were imposed on founder Tal Dillian, his alleged partner and close associate Sarah Alexandra Hamou, as well as on the former's interest companies, Cytrox AD (based in Skopje), CYTROX HOLDINGS ZARTKORUEN MUKODO RESZVENYTARSASAG (Hungary), INTELLEXA LIMITED (Ireland), INTELLEXA S.A. (Greece) and THALESTRIS LIMITED (Ireland).
Santinomo and Bitzios
The curious thing in this case has to do with the role of the Cypriot Santinomo Ltd, which owns 35% of the Greek Intellexa SA, which in turn is included in the "blacklists" of the US Departments of Commerce and Treasury. The central role in Santinomo is presented to have the Greek businessman Felix Bitzios. His name was mainly occupied by Greek media in the context of the investigation of the Predator scandal, while he now appears to participate in Panathinaikos Basketball Societe Anonyme (BC).
The journalists of Inside Story, Eliza Triantafyllou and Tassos Telloglou, in their revealing report yesterday, note about Santinomo and Mr. Bitzios: "Two days after the last sanctions, on March 7, 2024, Santinomo Limited uploads to the Cyprus Registrar of Companies two more deferred documents, again relating to the distant December 2020. According to the new documents, posted a few days ago, Andrea Gabacchi did not stay as director and secretary of Santinomo Limited for even one day. As mentioned above, supposedly on December 19, 2020, Felix Bitzios and Finsol Enterprises resigned from the positions of director and secretary respectively, to be taken over by Tal Dillian and Sarah Alexandra Hamou's partner, Andrea Gabacchi, since – again according to a deferred document – Felix Bitzios had sold his shares in the Irish Thalestris.
Finally, on 7 March 2024, Santinomo Limited informs the Cyprus Registrar of Companies, with a delay of 39 months, that on 19 December 2020 Felix Bitzios resumed the management of the company, succeeding Andrea Gabatsi and Finsol Enterprises returned to the position of company secretary".
The report of the Greek colleagues also gives details about the role of Finsol Enterprises presented as secretary of Santinomo: "The director of Finsol Enterprises is the Greek accountant Elias Kyriakides and the compliance officer (as it is a company licensed by the Cyprus Bar Association) is the Greek lawyer Konstantinos Koukoutsis"
The situation was complicated when Andrea Gabacchi answered questions from Inside Story journalists: "(...) We addressed detailed written questions to all those involved. That is, to Felix Bizgio, Finsol Enterprises, its director accountant Ilias Kyriakides and the compliance officer, lawyer Konstantinos Koukoutsis, but also to the other end of the transaction, namely Andreas Gabatsi, who controls 51.41% of the rights of Irish Thalestris Limited and acts as trustee for other persons holding the remaining 48.59% of the voting rights.
The only one who has responded so far is former Swiss banker Andrea Gabacchi. The answers we received open a new chapter in the report and will very likely lead to audits by the supervisory (and not only) authorities of Cyprus: Regarding the transfer of shares and the documents you sent me, I can confidently state that I have never been involved in this transfer (of Santinomo Limited) nor am I aware of any transfer of shares held by Santinomo Limited to Intellexa SA, to Thalestris Limited. Furthermore, I have never been a shareholder nor have I ever taken an active and/or passive role in Santinomo Limited. Finally, I can assure you that I do not know or have ever met Mr. Bizgio."
"The issues with Santinomo will be investigated."
The Registrar of Companies, Irene Mylona Chrysostomou, speaking yesterday to "F" from Munich where she is on official grounds, said that she has already made arrangements to investigate the issues raised for Santinomo. In particular, we asked for clarification on the issue concerning the submission of documents showing changes in the administrative structure that have been submitted 39 months later.
Mylona-Chrysostomou said that the companies, after first doing the internal procedures on the basis of decisions of their officials, are obliged within 14 days to submit the relevant documents. When they submit the documents late and outside the time frame, then they are fined Late Filing Fee. He added, however, that in order for a change to be registered by a company and accepted by the electronic system of the Department of Registrar of Companies or the officer handling it, the disclosed documents should not conflict with other documents in the company's file.
A competent official of the Cyprus Bar Association (GPA) told "F" that the case has been examined for about a week. Specifically, it is handled by the Supervision and Compliance Department of the GPP. "There is a suggestion for the case to be forwarded to the Cyprus Police, however, it will first be examined by the competent bodies. In any case, we consider the case to be very serious and it is being examined accordingly", was the position made in our newspaper.
