Cyprus Tax Commissioner Sotiris Markides stated today before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Development Plans and Public Expenditure Control that “no settlement was made before its dissolution” with Blue Ocean — meaning the tax debt was never paid.
Speaking to CIReN afterward, Markides clarified that “the unpaid VAT related to the period 2005–2010 and could not be pursued by the Cypriot authorities after so many years because Blue Ocean no longer had any directors.”
This revelation by the Tax Commissioner sparked outrage among MPs, who are demanding explanations from the Attorney General, who knew of the case but did not attend the session to explain his position. A new hearing has been scheduled in 15 days for this reason.
“The position of the Attorney General is very important, and the issue is critical, because it appears the Tax Commissioner referred the case to your office for legal opinion,” said Committee Chairman and DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias, addressing a representative of the Attorney General’s Office. The representative stated before MPs that she was not personally handling the case, adding, “I came to listen, I cannot comment now, and a written response will be submitted later on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office.”
Markides told CIReN that “there is no way to recover the VAT after the company has been struck off, not even through reinstatement,” a condition provided for in Cypriot law. “Let’s say we reinstate the company—then what? It has no directors. Am I supposed to go 20 years back to track down directors from 2005, 2006, 2007 and ask them what happened?” he asked rhetorically. “From whom can I collect money from, when the company no longer exists?” He also argued that the Tax Department “could not pursue the VAT claim while the matter was pending before the Cypriot courts. “As you know, they had the most expensive lawyers,” he remarked, pointing out that the Tax Department had been pursuing the unpaid VAT since 2012, but the case was only definitively resolved confirming the debt by the Supreme Court in March 2024.
Registrar of Companies Irini Mylonas confirmed to CIReN that “Blue Ocean Management Limited was definitively struck off the register on July 19, 2024, because it had been without a Director and Secretary since March 15, 2022.” According to a written statement by the Registrar obtained by CIReN, the process to strike off the company began in 2022, was interrupted after an objection from the Tax Commissioner, but eventually, “this objection was withdrawn on June 17, 2024,” and thus, “on July 19, 2024, Blue Ocean was officially removed from the registry with a notice in the Official Gazette of the Republic.”
Volt MP Alexandra Attalidou, who registered the matter with Parliament, raised several questions, emphasizing the key issue of whether “the Attorney General issued a legal opinion before Blue Ocean was dissolved” regarding how the outstanding debt should be handled. Speaking to CIReN, Attalidou criticized the Attorney General’s stance and said she intends to report the case to the Anti-Corruption Authority as well as to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, since it involves lost VAT revenue.
Before the Committee, Auditor General Andreas Papaconstantinou stated that his office “received a related complaint and requested information from the Tax Commissioner to investigate the matter, which it is still awaiting.”
AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou told the Committee that “the Abramovich case adds to many other corruption cases in which excessive delays in investigations and findings lead to the erosion of justice.”
AKEL MP Christos Christofides told CIREN that in the next session, the Attorney General himself should be present. He also requested that the Minister of Finance attend and provide answers, as he had submitted a written question months ago and never received a response.
The Tax Commissioner himself has asked to attend the session scheduled in 15 days in order to further explain his position.