Expose may have been part of hybrid attack on Cyprus, investigator says

NICOSIA, July 20 (Reuters) – A private intelligence firm’s expose claiming to document corruption in Cyprus may have been part of an effort to harm the Cypriot state, and none of those filmed did anything wrong, an independent investigator said on Monday.

The secretly shot video, released on social media on January 8, showed a Cypriot official, a former energy minister and a businessman talking with people posing as investors about potential investments and political donations. Two of those featured suggested they had direct access to upper echelons of government. 

All three denied wrongdoing but the official, Charalambos Charalambous, resigned as a senior aide to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides after the video’s release. 

Black Cube, a private intelligence company founded by former members of Israeli intelligence, said in April it had been involved in producing the video but did not identify its client. 

The office of Andreas Paschalides, who was appointed by the state to lead an independent investigation, said in a statement on Monday: “As things currently stand, one can reasonably conclude this video was a form of hybrid attack to harm the Cypriot state.”

It dismissed statements made in the video as “empty talk and bluster”. A hybrid attack is a coordinated influence operation that uses deceptive methods, including misleading information or staged content, to shape public perceptions and harm a target.

Cypriot investigators have offered immunity from prosecution to those involved in making the video but will continue to investigate who commissioned the sting, Paschalides’ office said. The Cyprus attorney general will review the investigation to decide if further action is warranted.

Black Cube, which says it follows the law wherever it operates, said in an emailed statement that it “stands firmly behind its evidence uncovering corruption in Cyprus.”

“The authenticity of the evidence was verified by Cypriot authorities,” it said. The investigator said roughly 26 hours of original footage, which it obtained, was genuine, but the eight-minute version published on social media was “not authentic since it was edited.” 

Black Cube said it “awaits the final assessment of the attorney general’s office and is confident it will bring those responsible to justice and facilitate a cleaner business environment. “

Two opposition parties, the Communist AKEL and centrist ALMA, decried Paschalides’ verdict as a whitewash. “This trivialises institutional collusion,” AKEL said.

The video appeared shortly after the Cypriot government assumed the rotating six-month European Union presidency on January 1. It triggered renewed scrutiny of business tactics in a jurisdiction that has worked hard in recent years to shed a longstanding reputation as a haven for opaque foreign money. 

(Writing by Michele Kambas, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Cynthia Osterman)

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