UKMS

That would have been my suggestion Alternatively if there is an English newspaper/online in Cyprus.

Peter Lodge

We are definitely going to look into both options, thank you for your advice.

Peter Lodge

We looked into the small claims court in Cyprus, bearing in mind this Lawyer is extremely clever and crafty, if we lost the case because of whatever reason we would have to pay his legal costs which he would run up through the roof, it is not the same as England, we have found that the legal system in Cyprus is very unpredictable, an English person against a Cypriot Lawyer, although without a doubt anyone would know who was in the wrong, we have trouble trusting anyone in Cyprus now.

Johnboyuk

Use a Cypriot lawyer based in the UK. There are quite a few. This is just one.

https://www.chambers.law/?gad_source...MaArWDEALw_wcB

Johnboyuk

Ignore the above, these people may be more use:


https://www.judicaregroup.com/site/c...ers-in-cyprus/

Pulaski

I only just found this thread, but I have a few thoughts on some of the posts.
The bank did nothing wrong, it transferred money from the solicitor's account per the solicitor's instructions.
The "different name" rule doesn't apply for a solicitor's account. I agree that it sounds like it was an inside job, but might not be the solicitor/ solicitors office. Who else knew about the money/ transaction?
This is undoubtedly true, no bank will correspond or negotiate with someone who is not a customer, even a lawyer or a professional with an interest in the matter is unlikely to get any useful information from the banks.
Again, without a customer relationship to the account where the funds were sent, the banking ombudsman isn't going to get involved.
Billions of pounds, euros and dollars flow through London every day, and there is very little liklihood of the funds being found there. In fact is highly likely (I would say "near certain") that the funds were moved on from the account they were credited to within 24 hours of being credited in London, and moved out of the UK and beyond the reach of UK or EU courts.
While the solicitor could be involved directly in the fraud, it is far more likely that he was negligent/ duped in taking the email of new details at face value without checking back directly to his client. Lawyers can be utter sharks, but I am sceptical that many of them are just straight-up theives.
That sounds reasonable, and consistent with my various comments above, which of course doesn't help you.

So, my thoughts are that there was a criminal fraud in Cyprus, that the solicitor while reckless in taking the email instructions and using them to transfer the money, was likely another victim of the fraud, not a particpant, and that the most likely route to any progress at all is to persuade someone to investigate the fraud. Whether that would be the police in Cyprus or a solicitor and private investigator, I'm not sure, but the key to understanding what happened is getting access to the email instructions, and finding out who sent the email, and where they got the information to send the email - how did they know that the money was there, waiting to be transferred?

Do you know anything about the account the money was sent to in London? Bank, name, account number, etc.? Despite all the comments above (mine and others), there is a small chance that you, or a lawyer acting on your behalf, might be able to "shake something loose" if you have the name and account number on the account, and send letters to the bank in the UK addressed to "the Fraud department" and "the Compliance Officer". I am not at all optimistic that you will get much of a response, and even less optimistic that it will lead to you getting your money back, but given your situation, it is something I would at least try as you don't have much to lose at this point.

Johnboyuk

Pulaski, Fair comment. My only reservation would be that if you look at the state of the real estate sector in Cyprus, there are around 100,000 that have still not received their title deeds. Accusations have been made about collusion between the government, judiciary, banks, and legal profession. Who knows? The Cyprus Property News is full of fraudulent cases. It looks like a minefield to me.

https://www.news.cyprus-property-buy...ds/id=00167469

Pulaski

Oh, I know that corruption is a major problem in Cyprus, and it is an issue that my employer is aware of and monitors, and as such affects my work.

The international corruption rating agency "Transparency.org" scores Cyprus as "53" on a 100 scale, along side Georgia, Grenada, and Rwanda, so some fine company there (Denmark is top, scoring 90, Somalia is bottom, scoring 11). At least Cyprus is rated above Saudi Arabia (52) and Malta (51).

Peter Lodge

Just to update everybody, since our Larnaca Solicitor transferred our life's savings to someone else's account we have spent nearly 3 years going round in circles, we have now heard back from his insurance company saying that he is not insured for cyber crime, even though he personally walked to the Bank of Cyprus in Larnaca, personally filled out the paying in slip and transferred the money in person, no buttons were pushed at any time, they are hiding behind the small print because apparently he received an email which he thought was from us changing the bank details, yet never once did he check by a phone call or text, if this is not incompetence and negligence I don't know what is, yet the Cypriot Law Society says he has done nothing wrong in their opinion.