That was enough to raise concerns when President Trump nominated Mr. Ross to be his commerce secretary. John Koenig, former US ambassador to Cyprus, told the Guardian he did not believe Ross had ever gone out of his way to favour Russian investors or the Kremlin. Legal experts who specialise in sanctions law said the deal did not violate EU or US sanctions. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Mr. Anastasiades, in public statements at the time, expressed alarm that the confiscation of deposits, carried out at the behest of the European Union in return for aid, would hand the bank to the Russians by issuing shares as compensation for seized money. A year later, Bank of Cyprus announced (pdf) it was offloading the Russian business, including loan exposures, to Avetisyan for €7m. Adonis Papaconstantinou, who leads a group of Laiki Bank creditors seeking to recover lost money, and who was once on the Bank of Cyprus board, said that the 2014 share issue was intended to make it difficult for Russians to invest and was skewed in favor of potential investors from the United States and Europe. In a speech in the Senate on Monday, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, complained that the White House was “sitting on” the replies. Peter Harrell, who served as the deputy assistant secretary for counter-threat finance and sanctions in the State Department at the time and is now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said Cyprus was “obviously” one of the places the Obama administration was worried about at the time because it was seen as a place that could help Russian entities evade sanctions, imposed as a result of the conflict over Crimea. “The theory that Ross is a Russian Trojan horse does not make any sense to me.”. But if the Bank of Cyprus goes down, Cyprus goes down, too.”, New Commerce Secretary Was No Friend to Russians at Cyprus Bank. “Ross came in to block the Russians, not to help them,” he added. This happened when the Cypriot authorities, desperate for cash to prop up failing banks, confiscated billions of dollars in deposits held in the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank, also known as Cyprus Popular Bank, which had failed. One of Ross’s first big decisions at the bank was the appointment of former Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann as chairman, whom he chose in part because of Ackermann’s “huge Rolodex”, according to a 2014 Bloomberg interview. But in September 2013, they secured seats on the Bank of Cyprus board, meaning that Russia, for the first time, had effective control of a major European bank. It comes amid confirmation by the FBI that it is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow to influence the outcome of the presidential election. “This was a high-risk environment and there were not a lot of external investors interested. Bank of Cyprus said the extension was provided because of the “worsening geopolitical situation in Ukraine”. Mr. Anastasiades, in an interview, denied having asked Mr. Biden to help line up investors for the Bank of Cyprus so as to break the grip of Russian shareholders. In many ways, however, it is much more than just a business. A spokeswoman for Avetisyan declined to comment. Ackermann’s ties to Russia were especially strong, including a warm relationship with Putin and Herman Gref of Sberbank. -Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross led a group of U.S. and European investors to purchase a $1.3 billion stake in Bank of Cyprus in July 2014 when the bank was on the verge of … ... such as Heineken-Lanitis Cyprus Ltd (2005-2007), Lumiere TV Public Ltd (2000-2012), A. Petsas & Sons Public Ltd (2000-2007) and CypriaLife Insurance Ltd (1995-2000). Given his background and career, numerous people with experience in banking or financial investigations found it highly unusual that an American businessman like Ross would get involved in a tiny bank in a jurisdiction widely known to be associated with Russian money laundering. Wilbur Ross, the famous American investor and manager of WL Ross, has recently been on FOX Business Network, where he presented his insights regarding one of his latest investments, in the Bank … “He told me he thought it was a good move because Cyprus had gone down so far it could not get any worse and could only go up,” Mr. Papaconstantinou recalled. “Clearly when they are in the middle of a war is not the right time to do anything,” he told Bartiromo. The government, he said, had no business deciding who invests in a private bank, and no interest in expelling the Russians. NICOSIA, Cyprus — When Wilbur L. Ross, a billionaire American investor, bought shares in the Bank of Cyprus three years ago, he found himself part owner of a big but failing bank with a vice chairman who used to work with Vladimir V. Putin in the Leningrad K.G.B. WL Ross & Co. CEO Wilbur Ross on his leading investment into Bank of Cyprus. Alfa Bank still owed Bank of Cyprus €57m as of the end of September. We want everyone.”. However he also appears to have acknowledged an additional group of Bank of Cyprus shares that had not been previously mentioned, suggesting he did not accurately report his interest in the bank on his initial disclosures. Senator Cory Booker and other Democrats recently sent a third letter to Ross with more questions, including whether Ross had ever done business with companies that were under US sanctions. Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s new commerce secretary, presided over a deal with a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin while serving in his previous role as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. The shares of the bank are listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE). As a result of this highly controversial maneuver, Mr. Strzhalkovsky and other Russians lost billions. Wilbur Ross’ Dream Team . It said the sale price reflected the market price and that the sale had resulted in a “significant reduction of risk” and reduced the bank’s exposure to the Russian economy. But Harrell, the former Obama administration official, said he found connections between Russia and the Trump administration to be “strange and troubling” and that he included Ross’s tenure at the Bank of Cyprus among the “long list of concerns”. That 2013 banking crisis, however, opened the way for other Russians, some of whom had close ties to the Kremlin, in contrast with Mr. Rybolovlev, to gain control of the Bank of Cyprus, at least on paper. 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