Helios orphans fall victim to haircut

ON AUGUST 14, 2005, 33 children were orphaned overnight, their lives irrevocably changed.
These children are the living victims of the fateful Helios Airways crash that killed all 121 passengers onboard the Boeing 737 aircraft, including their parents and, in many cases, their siblings.
On March 16, 2013, the majority of these same children became victims once again. This time, instead of being robbed of their parents, they stand to lose the compensation awarded to them following their parents’ death as part of the brutal haircut on bank deposits.
George Nicolaou and his wife are both 60 years old. For the past seven and a half years they have been the sole carers of their nine-year-old grandson, George, who lost both his parents and sister, in the crash.
Nicolaou has been unemployed for two years. His wife stopped working when their grandson was born, to help look after him, because the couple’s son and daughter-in-law worked full time. Although the couple don’t have much money, they have managed to get by. They have also felt secure in the knowledge that they had around €1 million in a fixed deposit account with the Bank of Cyprus.
“This was the compensation he got for losing his mother and father and sister,” said Nicolaou.
The figure is in fact the total sum of money that Nicolaou, his wife, their grandson and other family members all received as compensation for their loss. Instead of keeping their portion of compensation money themselves, however, the grandparents and other family members preferred to give it all to the orphaned boy.
Today, given the terms of the bailout, his grandson might lose up to 60 per cent of that money and there was nothing Nicolaou could do to stop it.
The bitter irony is that he had tried desperately to keep his grandson’s money out of the clutches of the EU and IMF lenders but was prevented from doing so by red tape.
“In the first few weeks of March I wanted to move his money. I felt things weren’t right with the Bank of Cyprus (BoC). I contacted a lawyer and he told me that because the money was in my grandson’s name I had to file an application with the court to take over the management of the child’s money. He said this process would take at least three months.”
Nicolaou said he feared his grandson could also lose the remainder of his money given the present state of affairs at the BoC.
“I want to move it to another bank or to split the money up into four accounts. I don’t know what to do. I just know that I need to protect what is left so that when he’s 18 he’ll have at least something to help him have a start in life,” he said.
“We have nothing to give him. If something happens, there’s no one to help him,” he added.
The grandfather said he and his wife didn’t know how long they would live and they worried what would come of the boy. Although he had aunts and uncles, they had children of their own to provide for, and they had all been comforted in the knowledge that at least the child had some money to give him an education.
“We knew when he was 18 he would have some money to study. Now....,” said Nicolaou, his voice trailing off.
Continuing in a hollow voice, he added: “I feel anxious. Anxious about his future. A lot, a lot of anxiety.”
Nicolaou said had the first bailout package been agreed, his grandson would have lost only 10 per cent of the compensation money.
“That would not have been a problem. It [10 per cent haircut] would have been the interest he’d collected so far. He would have just had to start over again. Now though, he’s lost so much. It’s just so unjust. You hear about so many bigwigs getting tipped off and moving their money. It’s so unfair. Other people make mistakes and other people pay,” he said.
In the meantime, the 60-year-old said he’d hired a lawyer to try to help him get access to the money to move it. He only hoped that he managed to do it before his grandson lost everything.
“The way the BoC is going I don’t know if anything will be left,” he said.
The government spokesman said yesterday that while George Nicolaou and the other orphans could not escape the haircut on their compensation, the government would do its best to reimburse them.
But the spokesman, Christos Stylianides, conceded there was no guarantee when this might happen or how much the children might receive towards covering their losses.
“Each individual case will be examined. They could be [reimbursed] the total amount [lost]. This issue will be the responsibility of the Labour Minister... The government feels very compassionate [about this issue] and there is the political will,” he told the Sunday Mail.
Despite the government’s assurances, the orphans’ relatives have understandable doubts to what extent its promise will stand.
Neoclis Neocleous is another broken man. You can hear it in his voice when he speaks to you.
“What do you want me to say? What can I do? It’s a mess.” The desolation the 61-year-old feels is almost tangible.
Neocleous is the guardian of his two granddaughters aged 11 and 9. His daughter, the girls’ mother, and son-in-law, their father, was killed in the Helios crash. When the girls received compensation in the region of €1 million each for their parents’ death, he put all the money in Laiki bank for safekeeping. This sum was the total compensation received by all the relatives of the girls’ parents. The relatives kept none of the money themselves, preferring instead to give it to the orphaned girls. Some of the money was put in high-yield securities and the other in fixed-term deposits. Like any grandparent, Neocleous was looking out for his grandchildren’s future. Today, that future looks extremely bleak.
“These are minors under the state’s protection until they are 18. How can they come and take their money?” he asked.
Like Nicolaou, Neocleous had tried to move his granddaughters’ money but his hands had been tied due to the lengthy court procedure to get access to it. Now, he doesn’t know if the two girls will see a penny of it.
The pensioner said he and his wife used to receive €270 a month for both girls from the social services but that last August the attorney-general (AG) had ruled that the children were not really orphans and that they should be exempt from receiving state aid. Nicolaou said he had also stopped receiving the same aid for his grandson on the same grounds.
“The AG ruled they aren’t really orphans because they are living with me and I am now their father. As if that’s even possible! Me? Their father? How does that even make sense? How is it possible? And this ruling comes from an AG who covered for his son. Do you see what goes on in this country?” he said.
Neocleous was referring to last week’s confirmed reports that the AG had suspended prosecution for his son’s driving violations.
Neocleous could not seem to get his head round the fact that his two granddaughters, two little girls who have suffered from the day they lost their parents, could be subjected to this from a state under whose care they were.
“They are protected by the state, by the court, how could this happen?” he said.
The 61-year-old pensioner said he had no intention of taking this lying down and that he would fight this to the end, including going to the European Courts.
“They don’t need the money for at least another six or seven years but I will get it for them,” he said.
Asked to describe how he felt since March 16, the grandfather said “despair”.
“The children (his daughter and son-in-law) are being killed for a second time. This is Helios all over again. It is opening old wounds. These are two minors. Where is the justice now? This money is their parents’ lives. The pain of losing a child is indescribable. It is the ultimate pain. Everyone says they feel for you, but the reality is so much worse,” he said.
“I get by with what I’ve got, but what about these children. They live with deep insecurities and have been affected not only by the loss of their parents but now the loss of their money. They ask me about it. They ask me where will they go and who will look after them now,” he added, sighing deeply, like a man carrying the worries of the world on his shoulders.
Vassilis Koutsoftas, 62, and his wife Chrystalla lost their only son, daughter-in-law and five-year-old granddaughter, Chryso, in 2005. To this day they have been raising their grandson, Vassilis, who is now 10 years old.
Like the other grandparents, this couple put the total sum of compensation money their family received for their loss, in their grandson’s name. For safekeeping, they put the money in a fixed term deposit at the Bank of Cyprus. Although Koutsoftas is holding on to the hope that justice will prevail, and all the Helios orphans will be spared from the haircut, he doesn’t know for sure.
“The child’s future is at stake,” the 62-year-old car mechanic said. “He needs the money to give him a start in life.”
Koutsoftas said his grandson hadn’t made the money himself and that it had been an insurance payment from abroad so he shouldn’t be included in the haircut.
“I’m old and he doesn’t have any parents to help him, so this money is to give him that help in life.”
Koutsoftas said he and his wife and discussed how best to address the money issue with the state psychologist their grandson saw once a month.
“We try not to talk about it in front of him but he hears a lot and we have been very anxious. He’s a very clever boy and doesn’t miss a thing. He knows something is wrong and has been asking about his money and if he’ll get it. He has so much to deal with and has had so many losses in his short life. How do I tell him he’s also lost the money?”
The 62-year-old said he could not describe the sense of injustice he felt for his grandson.
“It’s just so unfair,” he said.
His wife, who said her life stopped in 2005 and visits her son’s grave daily, said this latest horror was a bitter pill to swallow.
“We lost our children. We got some money for the child. Now we’ve lost the money too.”
Sounding agitated and overcome with emotion, the grandmother said she had recently had to go through lots of paperwork to find her son’s, his wife’s and her granddaughter’s death certificates so that they could send it to the Central Bank. The idea behind these efforts is to try and secure exemption from the haircut for their grandson. The problem is, in doing this, all sorts of painful memories are relived anew.
“We’re living through a second tragedy,” she said, her voice wavering. “What else can I say? I don’t know what to say? God will help us.”