Filenews 10 February 2026 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
In a pioneering decision that concerns exclusively the access of the Police to bank vaults and their connection with possible criminal activities, the Supreme Court issued today.
An Israeli couple, who are being investigated by the French authorities for a major case of financial fraud with cryptocurrencies, appealed to the Supreme Court requesting the issuance of a privileged Certiorari Warrant for the cancellation of the search warrants dated. 22.10.2025 in their bank vaults. The applicants, through their lawyers, argued that there was nothing connecting the two lockers with the offenses under investigation.
As stated in the decision, in order to open a bank deposit box, two keys are needed. One held by the bank and one held by the owner. The owner did not give his consent and thus the safe deposit box would be violated. Before this happened, the applicants requested the annulment of a relevant search warrant.
According to a European investigation order forwarded by the French authorities to the Cypriot authorities, cryptocurrency investment frauds have appeared since 2020. The "scammers" acted through dozens of fake investment and trading platforms with many victims in France and Europe in general. The high quality of the structures used, the total amounts received and the interconnection of the facts that emerged from the investigations, revealed the existence of a large criminal group.
As stated in the oath on the basis of which the search warrant was obtained by a Limassol court for the two bank vaults, the establishment of companies abroad and in particular in Cyprus, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong, allowed structures to play a central role in the money laundering process. Once the funds were incorporated, the company could pay salaries, make real estate purchases, or transfer the funds to other structures. It emerged that the money laundering operations involved cryptocurrency flows of US$700 million until today.
That is why a search warrant was requested in the two bank vaults in search of smartphones, tablets and high-tech internet equipment. In her decision, Judge Elena Ephraim finds that based on the content of the oath, there is an international, organized and multidimensional fraud plan through fake investment and trading platforms in cryptocurrencies, which were channelled to and traded from bank accounts. The persons involved in this scam allegedly used websites and other electronic means, created fake cryptocurrency pages, in which it appeared that users' investments yielded significant profits, and then embezzled these funds through companies and carried out transactions and purchases of movable and immovable property to launder this money.
In this scheme, the decision states, it appears that the applicant received in his cryptocurrency account about US$20,000 directly related to fake cryptocurrency investment fraud websites during 2021, and an additional US$3 million was channelled through this account.
"These elements reasonably lead to the suspicion that the applicant participated in the whole scheme since cryptocurrencies, which emerged from the fake scam websites, ended up in his account and a fairly large amount of money was transferred through his account in question. The applicant and his family allegedly maintained a trust, the purpose of which was to collect real estate. The applicant also maintains two bank safe deposit boxes, one of which belongs to him jointly with his wife (applicant) and the second safe deposit box to the same with the applicant as a proxy representative", the Court notes.
It was the conclusion of the Supreme Court that this testimony was capable of creating a reasonable suspicion of the applicant's connection with the offenses under investigation, since it appears to be related to both the fake cryptocurrency investment fraud websites and the receipt of cryptocurrencies in his account and the movement through the account of the large amount of money. That conclusion is, moreover, not the subject of the present Application.
Following these findings, the Court rejected the application of the two Israelis. The Attorney General was represented by Ms. M. Fotiadou, Lawyer of the Republic, with Ms. E. Konstantinou, Public Prosecutor.
