A 31-year-old Ukrainian woman who is accused of transferring a total of €8 million to Cyprus in recent months is set to appear before the Larnaca district court on Thursday to be further remanded, as she is facing charges related to money laundering.
The case, which has been transferred from Nicosia to Larnaca following instructions from the Legal Service, aims to shed light on the suspicious movement of large sums of money through the Larnaca airport.
The woman was arrested for money laundering and remanded after reporting that she had been robbed of €420,000 in cash.
The 31-year-old is facing three charges related to a total of 20 incidents, including conspiracy to commit a crime, legitimisation of income from illegal activities and false declaration of information.
The offences were allegedly committed between August 2023 and March 1, 2024, involving the transfer of a total amount of eight million euros to Cyprus.
According to CNA sources, the police will request the detention of the woman until the start of the trial before criminal court.
The woman declared the money to the customs department on her arrivals to the island, but police now believe her explanations for the money to be “insufficient”.
More specifically, she said the sum of money corresponded to the amount of a loan she had taken out to buy a residential unit in Cyprus. However, when interrogated, she gave a different version to police investigators, saying that the amount came from her personal savings.
The contradictions triggered the police to start looking into a case of money laundering involving other people.
The case is also being investigated by the Larnaca anti-money laundering unit (Mokas).
Although Mokas deals primarily in offences involving financial transactions that leave traces in the financial system, such as bank transfers, rather than gross cash sums, it will nevertheless be able to request assistance from similar bodies operating in other countries, in order to be able to access international databases.