21 October 2017

During the last few months and, in particular as from June last, the smearing campaign against FBME and, consequently, against its ultimate beneficial owners Mr. Ayoub Farid Michel Saab and Mr. Fadi Michel Saab (both herein after referred to as the Saab brothers) intensified through publications in various newspapers and internet sites.

In fact, what began and is going on, is a merciless, conscientiously false slanderous and / or organized defamatory campaign aimed at the complete and / or irreparable destruction of the reputation of both the Bank and the Saab Brothers. The defamers are completely uninterested of the damage which may ensue to Bank’s clients.

These false, defamatory and damaging publications are more often than not reproduced in Cyprus by one Stelios Orphanides, one of the Defendants in a libel action brought by the Saab brothers before the Courts in Cyprus.

Ever since the 2014 decision of the Central Bank of Cyprus, whereby the latter decided to put and did put the Bank into so called Resolution, the Saab brothers struggled, using resources of their own, to defend the Bank, in an effort to safeguard its real interests and the interests of its clients, especially its Depositors, which are among the victims of the situation created by the precipitous actions of the Authorities, the legality of which is being contested in pending legal proceedings.

The struggle continues and will continue unabated. The interests of the Bank’s depositors are of paramount importance and they are treated, as such, by the Saab brothers. In this respect the Saab brothers had and have no alternative but to vigorously pursue their rights, by filing legal proceedings, wherever legally possible, against those who, without conducting a due inquiry as to real and true facts, proceed and defame the Bank and its ultimate shareholders in the aforesaid manner.