Serbian money laundering victim takes crusade against Cyprus to EU

PREDRAG Djordjevic, a Serbian businessman who claims that he lost $26 million in potential income under the Milosevic regime from money laundering in Cyprus, is reportedly planning to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Djordjevic , who is a naturalised Cypriot, has lost two civil cases in Cypriot courts where he tried to prove that the then Cyprus Popular Bank was responsible for his lost money.

According to Alithia, Djordjevic is now trying to recover the amount of $10 billion, which he claims that Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic had transferred to Cyprus during a UN embargo on Serbia during the 1990s.

In 2006 Djordjevic had sued the Popular Bank accusing the lending institution of being an accessory to money laundering for its alleged failure to exercise due diligence in opening accounts that originated from the former Yugoslavia, despite the UN embargo.

Having failed to win the legal battle in Cyprus, Djordjevic, who has been living on the island since 1992, has expressed the intention to continue his crusade at the European level.

He has reportedly set up a meeting with the relevant department of the European Commission on 24 November. He also expressed his willingness to take his case to the European court of Human Rights.

In his case against the Popular Bank Djordjevic claimed that the bank had illegally held his money in the account of an offshore company called Antexol. In 1994 Djordjevic had attempted to ship cotton to Yugoslavia with a UN permit on humanitarian grounds. He claimed that a Bulgarian partner had wired money into his company’s account in Belgrade that was supposed to be transferred to Beogradska Banka in Cyprus. The transfer, however, was blocked preventing Djordjevic from closing his cotton deal.

During Djordjevic’s law suit in a Cypriot court, it had emerged that Antexol’s Popular Bank account mysteriously bore the same numbers as his account with Beogradska. Djordjevic claimed that because the two account numbers were identical, the Popular Bank assumed that the money transfer was directed to Antexol.

Antexol was identified by the International War Crimes Tribunal as one of the eight offshore companies that comprised a money-laundering network, while all of them had opened accounts in Cyprus with the Popular Bank and were registered in Cyprus by the Tassos Papadopoulos law firm.

Source: Cyprus Mail