Filenews 30 May 2025 - by Fanis Makrides
The information that Anastasiades made a telephone intervention in September 2013 to the then Minister of Finance, Harris Georgiadis, in order to give away a tax amount at the expense of a company owned by Roman Abramovich, sparked intense debate at yesterday's two-hour meeting of the parliamentary audit committee.
The existence of the information dominated the discussion on the well-known issue of the €14 million that the company Blue Ocean was asked to pay to the Republic of Cyprus and which is alleged through trust to be the interests of the tycoon and former owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich.
This money related to Blue Ocean's VAT debts (2005-10) and ultimately these tax liabilities were never settled, as clarified at a previous meeting. This is despite the fact that the debt was also recognized by the Supreme Court to which the company had appealed.
The Minister of Finance during the period in question, Harris Georgiadis, although he is not a member of this parliamentary committee, attended yesterday's meeting and gave his own positions.
He said that indeed a BBC journalist contacted him last January and asked him if it was true that the then President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, intervened from New York with the ultimate goal of relieving the company that is presented as being in the interests of Roman Abramovich from its tax obligations.
Mr. Georgiadis, based on what he said yesterday in Parliament, told the journalist that he did not remember something like this having happened. In fact, the former minister and current MP said that the publication of the international consortium of journalists OCCRP in early 2025, which brought to light the case of Blue Ocean and its debts of €14 million, does not include anything reprehensible about the company's debt. Nor, as he said, is the information about Mr. Anastasiades' intervention against him included.
The researcher/writer Makarios Drousiotis, who was invited to the meeting on the initiative of Irene Charalambidou, also took the floor. Drousiotis said that he had received the information himself when he was an associate in the Presidential Office during the tenure of Nicos Anastasiades.
He referred to a post yesterday on his website where he revealed a personal note on 22/9/2013. The note stated, among other things: "President [Anastasiades] of Haris [Georgiadis] called about an issue from New York. In the end it was a case of Abramovich, who has some boats written to a company controlled by (...) A boat went to Germany for maintenance. The Germans dusted things off a bit and sent a message to the Cypriot authorities to investigate money laundering. Upon investigation, the authorities came to a conclusion that his company (...) must pay some €20 million in Income Tax or VAT. He asks for a favour to reduce the amount (...)".
Makarios Drousiotis said that his note was digitized and that he can technologically prove that he had written it during the period in question. He added that it was he who brought this information to the attention of the consortium of journalists, indirectly indicating that the BBC journalist who called Mr. Georgiadis by phone is precisely on the basis of his own information that he asked the former finance minister. He also said that what was included in the note was confirmed by the 2025 publication "up to the antenna", an expression he repeated.
However, there was a strong reaction from the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Zacharias Koulias, who submitted questions to Makarios Drousiotis, questioning the authenticity of the information and asking him to indicate the origin of his source. In response to Drousiotis' refusal not to bypass journalistic secrecy, Mr. Koulias strongly questioned the motives of Mr. Drousiotis, for whom he commented that while he was working at the Presidential Palace, he then turned against Nicos Anastasiades.
In the two-hour discussion, the Commissioner of Taxation, Sotiris Markidis, the Commissioner of Companies, Irene Mylona Chrysostomou and the Senior Lawyer of the Republic, Eleni Symeonidou, who represented the Legal Service, gave their positions.
Alexandra Attalidou, who registered the issue, spoke of a criminal offense of tax avoidance.
Representatives of the competent departments of the State, based on what they reported, did not present any tangible evidence to prove that Roman Abramovich is the final beneficiary of the trust that held the shares of Blue Ocean. Neither MOKAS has such data (it had no involvement in the matter in order to be informed), nor the Department of the Registrar of Companies, nor the Department of Taxation.
There was, however, confirmation from Mr. Markidis that in 2012, when the Tax Department investigated the issue of Blue Ocean and concluded that it had to pay €14 million. As a Value Added Tax, it was informed by a survey of European countries (ed. one was Germany as mentioned by attendees).
The four yachts
Mrs. Attalidou, in her attempt to attribute the dimensions of the issue, spoke of the commission of criminal offenses by Blue Ocean and the office that provided administrative services to it. Among other things, Mrs. Attalidou said that the case concerns four yachts. "Which," he commented, "in different companies were exploited by another company in cooperation with this company. Mr. Abramovich, who was very rich, but stingy, decided to set up a company with the help of Cypriots and to present to them that it was for commercial reasons that he owned the ships and that he was renting them, while he was not renting them, so we came and imposed VAT on him. Therefore, Mr. Abramovich and Merit Servus knowingly committed a criminal act, which involves imprisonment. The company had to pay three times the VAT, i.e. it should have been €42 million plus interest, because they deliberately tried in a fraudulent way to deceive the Republic of Cyprus. Foreign countries came and did research on Abramovich. because we did not get news and they informed the Republic of Cyprus (...)".
The history with Blue Ocean
The Commissioner of Taxation claimed €13,936,755 from Blue Ocean in 2012. The amount concerned Value Added Tax for activities between the years 2005-10 (tax period 1/12/2005 – 31/8/2010). The company's lawyers disputed the amount, first with an objection and later with legal remedies. The Administrative Court on 28/9/2018 concluded to dismiss Blue Ocean's appeal and uphold the contested VAT decision. The company appealed the decision of the Administrative Board. However, by the time the case was heard in 2024 by the Supreme Court, the company had been written off. The last directors of the company had also left. Thus, in 2024, the decision of the Supreme Court, since there were no opposing parties, validated the debt.
The MPs did not ask the Superintendent why he withdrew an objection to the deletion of Blue Ocean
As far as the substance of the matter is concerned, according to the mixed, the Tax Department in one case withdrew an objection to a request for the cancellation of the Blue Ocean company, resulting in it being written off before 2024 when its debts were recognized by the Supreme Court. As a result, the €14 million, due as VAT, could not be claimed by the state.
This became known after the statement of the Registrar of Companies, Irene Mylona Chrysostomou. The latter, in fact, made this statement before the Commissioner of Taxation Sotiris Markidis, who was on the same bench to her right and was going to take the floor at a later stage. However, none of the MPs who submitted questions asked Mr. Markidis why the department he heads withdrew a request for the company's deletion. Nor was the position of Irene Mylona Chrysostomou questioned. In any case, Mr. Markidis willingly took a position on all the issues raised. However, he was not asked about this.
In her initial statement, Mrs. Irene Mylona Chrysostomou explained that when companies cannot comply with their obligations on the basis of the Companies Law or if there are other reasons that she explained, then they are subject to deletion. He added that the Registrar of Companies compiles a list of many company names, publishes it in the newspaper of the Republic and then institutions or bodies, such as the Tax Commissioner or banking institutions, can submit an objection for their deletion due to pending procedures. He clarified that this had happened with Blue Ocean in the summer of 2022, when the Tax Commissioner filed an objection.
And the Registrar of Companies added: "At some later stage (...) in the context of the collective withdrawal of objections, this objection was also withdrawn by the Commissioner of Taxation, so our electronic system, since there was no objection for this particular company, proceeded to delete it".
The Registrar of Companies, referring to the means that exist for the reconstitution of companies and the settlement of any outstanding issues they have, referred to the provisions of the legislation. Among other things, he said: "Anyone who has a legitimate interest in reinstating the company can immediately reinstate it by court order (...) The company is re-registered as if it had never been deleted". Moreover, he answered a clarifying question in the following way: Anyone with a legitimate interest can do so." In essence, he indicated how the amounts owed by Blue Ocean can be claimed.
The Commissioner of Taxation, Sotiris Markidis, explaining why from 2012 to 2024 there were no attempts to collect the €14 million from Blue Ocean pointed to the pending litigation and the legislation, which dictates that if administrative and judicial procedures are not exhausted, collection measures cannot be taken.
