THE FAMAGUSTA district court has ordered the winding up of the property development company, K & M Famagusta Developers and Construction Ltd, after the company was deemed “unable to pay its debts”.
The liquidation order was issued upon the failure of the company to comply with previous court decisions regarding a claim by one of the company’s customers that she was owed €50,000 by the company. Famagusta Developers has had several problems since it was set up in 2005 and was struck off the Contractor Registration and Oversight Council twice.
In September 2010, it was found guilty of breaching its contractual agreement with a British couple for a house in the Famagusta district. It was ordered to pay the couple €100,000.
The company’s director, Kypros Kyprianou was placed on the stop list and faced charges of fraud. This was just the latest of several other run-ins with the law.
According to the daily newspaper Politic, the applicant had paid Famagusta Developers €50,000 as a down-payment for an apartment in Paralimni that was eventually never built.
Despite the breach of contract, the company had refused to return the money to the woman.
The company was found guilty on December 6, 2010 and was instructed by a court order, issued on February 12, 2011 to repay the amount within three weeks from the decision.
When the company failed to do so, the applicant subsequently filed for a liquidation order against the company. There are several other suits against the same company for similar cases while there were also other liquidation applications pending against the company.
Kyprianou spent most of the 1990s in prison for fraud offences after his company, Kyprianou Estates, which operated throughout the 1980s, was reported for selling the same property twice.
He fled the island before the police investigation was complete but was arrested in Germany and extradited to Cyprus where he was jailed. He was released in 2000 before later setting up Famagusta Developers.
Richard, there’s no ‘perhaps’ about it!
With the technology that exists today – all directors of any company worldwide acting in a flagrantly dishonest and corrupt manner should face an industrial tribunal.
If they are found guilty of gross negligence or misconduct they should be DNA-fingerprinted and put on a register similar to sex offenders.
That way – they wouldn’t be allowed loans to run any further companies and would not escape detection with the old ‘change of identity’ trick.
Why this isn’t done is beyond me.
If it were – maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. Perhaps those with the power to implement such a thing have too much to hide perhaps?
I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve heard references being made about Cyprus’ corruption, dodgy lawyers and developers, unscrupulous financial institutions, poor hospital standards, overpriced restaurants, etc., only to receive the stock answer that “It’s the same in England.” (or America, Peru, Dundee, Guatemala or wherever). Such a retort is simply not good enough and is a non-argument. And anyway, so what if there’s corruption elsewhere? We’re well aware that the world’s not perfect.
It’s all a question of degree and whether or not safeguards are in place for the citizen to be protected by the full force of the law and if that law is indeed enforced. The fact of the matter is that when it comes to the punishing of wrongdoers and enforcement of the law, the Cypriot state is always found to be wanting, and no more so than when it comes to the title deed scandal. Quite simply, there ARE no safeguards, the state’s condonation of the status quo confirming Cyprus’ rogue status in the wider world. Could it be that it’s because successive governments have been joined at the hip to all those connected to this fraud? Naturally, I couldn’t possibly comment.
@Dave – Yes, this type of thing does go on in the UK.
BUT in the UK it’s very easy to check out the list of disqualified directors with Companies House on-line.
In Cyprus such information is ‘secret’ and it is virtually impossible for lawyers to find out whether a property developer has been disqualified previously or whether he has any convictions.
Jim comments:
It does not say much for Cyprus, that it lets people convicted of serious property related frauds, set up another property company when they get out of jail.
But hey, this is Cyprus.
You read the same items in the Manchester Evening News month after month. The latest this week is a disqualified director, set another company up only to default nearly £450K now jailed less than 4 years
But hey, “this is England”
I agree with Jim except that I would advise, NEVER buy a property in Cyprus until this whole title deed fiasco is sorted out completely and the whole basis on which property is bought and sold in Cyprus undergoes a complete and radical overhaul.At the moment it does not seem that there is any protection for the the property ‘owner’ (if there is such a thing in Cyprus !) even if he has deeds.
Hopefully the EU will demand answers from the Cypriot government in January and they will not be able to give them. This will then force the EU to take some punitive action against Cyprus. We can only live in hope.
Beware of Interior Ministers, Lawyers, Developers and agents telling you that your property purchases are safeguarded in Cyprus. They are not.
The law’s governing immovable property could have been better formulated by a three year old.
Stevie C.
Third Time Lucky Inc. ?
I wonder what his new company will be called!
It does not say much for Cyprus, that it lets people convicted of serious property related frauds, set up another property company when they get out of jail.
But hey, this is Cyprus.
NEVER buy a property in Cyprus unless you are given a clear title deed at point of purchase.
‘He fled the island before the police investigation was complete but was arrested in Germany and extradited to Cyprus where he was jailed. He was released in 2000 before later setting up Famagusta Developers.’
Obviously the ‘Fit and Proper’ person test used when someone wants to set up in business as a property developer in Cyprus is working well isn’t it?