Investigators Hit Brick Wall: Bank Of Cyprus CEO Hard Drives Wiped

– Investigators Hit Brick Wall; Bank Of Cyprus CEO Hard Drives Wiped (ZeroHedge, April 5, 2013):

As the investigation into unusual loan write-downs and the ‘premature’ movement of capital away from Cyprus by the elites of that nation progresses, Cyprus Mail reports that the investigators – Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) – have found that the information provided by Bank of Cyprus (BoC) was incomplete and data deleting software were found on the computers of two senior executives. “Our computer forensic technologists have found that the computers of two employees, (former CEO) Mr. (Andreas) Eliades and (senior manager group treasury and private banking) Christakis Patsalides, have had wiping software loaded, which is not part of the standard software installations at the BoC.” Investigators found no e-mail files, mailboxes or user documents on Eliades’ desktop computer – “we had significant gaps in the e-mail data received from BoC for the period 2007 to 2010, a key period for our scope of investigation,” and no email backups were performed. A&M is looking into how BoC accumulated €2.4bn worth of Greek government bonds (GGBs), later suffering huge losses because of that, and into BoC’s expansion to Romania and Russia. We are sure this is all above board and normal IT protocol for the bank… or not.Via Cyprus Mail,

Deletion of data allegedly took place on computers belonging to senior Bank of Cyprus (BoC) executives, according to the leaked findings of a probe into the circumstances that forced the island’s biggest lenders to seek state assistance.

Alvarez and Marsal, the firm tasked with investigating why Bank of Cyprus and Laiki sought state assistance, said the information provided by BoC was incomplete and data deleting software were found on the computers of two senior executives.

“Our computer forensic technologists have found that the computers of two employees, (former CEO) Mr. (Andreas) Eliades and (senior manager group treasury and private banking) Christakis Patsalides, have had wiping software loaded, which is not part of the standard software installations at the BoC,” A&M said. “Mass deletion of data appears to have been undertaken on the Patsalides computer on October 18, 2012.”

A&M’s findings were handed over to parliament on Wednesday.

…

Investigators found no e-mail files, mailboxes or user documents on Eliades’ desktop computer.

…

A&M said there were more gaps in the data collection.

“We had significant gaps in the e-mail data received from BoC for the period 2007 to 2010, a key period for our scope of investigation,” the firm said.

…

A&M said its team was not authorised to issue subpoenas or compel anyone to attend an interview or compel the production documents and data if they did not work for an entity supervised by the CBC.

However, any conduct identified as suspicious will be surrendered to the attorney-general, A&M said, citing the CBC.

A&M looked into how BoC accumulated €2.4 billion worth of Greek government bonds (GGBs), later suffering huge losses because of that.

It also looked into BoC’s expansion to Romania and Russia.

…