LAWFUEL – The US Legal Newswire – MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that the United States filed civil money laundering charges today against LLOYDS TSB BANK PLC and the BANK OF CYPRUS, alleging that both banks
permitted the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars
generated by the AremisSoft securities fraud. The United States
seeks monetary civil penalties totaling at least $130 million
from LLOYDS TSB BANK PLC and at least $162 million from BANK OF
CYPRUS, for the value of the funds involved in the financial
transactions relating to AremisSoft. According to the Complaints
filed in Manhattan federal court:
LLOYDS TSB BANK PLC (“LLOYDS”) and BANK OF CYPRUS
violated federal money laundering provisions by allowing
LYCOURGOS KYPRIANOU, an international fugitive currently at large
in Cyprus, to launder millions of dollars from a massive
securities fraud allegedly perpetrated by KYPRIANOU and others.
KYPRIANOU was the founder and former Chairman of the Board at
AremisSoft — a company specializing in the development and sale
of computer software technology, particularly for the healthcare,
hospitality, construction and manufacturing industries.
KYPRIANOU allegedly engaged in an insider trading scheme in which
he artificially inflated the price of AremisSoft’s publicly
traded stock, used nominee companies to hold and sell the stock,
and misled the investing public into thinking that the sales were
genuine arms-length transactions — transactions in which both
parties act independently and have no relationship to one another
— while concealing his illegal conduct. In June of 2002, a
federal grand jury indicted KYPRIANOU and others for securities
fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit securities
fraud and money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud.
According to the Complaints, LLOYDS and BANK OF CYPRUS
knowingly assisted KYPRIANOU in laundering the proceeds of the
AremisSoft fraud through numerous accounts that he beneficially
owned or controlled, well after the widely publicized downfall of
AremisSoft and the indictment of KYPRIANOU and others for
securities fraud. LLOYDS also fraudulently confirmed nonexistent
AremisSoft cash holdings, knowing AremisSoft and its auditors
would rely on that information when analyzing AremisSoft’s
financial statements.
Assistant United States Attorneys SHARON COHEN LEVIN
and RUA KELLY are handling the case.
07-251 ###