Landmark Case in Cyprus: Christos Paraskevas LLC law firm successfully obtained an order for the Disclosure of the IP Addresses and a worldwide freezing injunction against non-Cypriots individuals and companies, in a complex cross border fraud case

Our Law Firm and our managing partner Christos Paraskevas represented a Hong Kong company in legal proceedings in Cyprus, which claimed that allegedly had fallen a victim of fraud. The alleged fraudsters used a complex corporate structure involving foreigner shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus and abroad to conceal the true identities of the individual beneficial owners and to alienate the funds of our clients in unknown directions.

In that case, a worldwide mareva injunction freezing the property and the money of the individual alleged fraudsters and of the companies was requested by our firm and issued by the Cyprus court. Additionally, a disclosure Norwich (Norwich Pharmacal) was requested by our firm against the opposing defendants and issued by the Cyprus court, to disclose the IP address used for the bank transactions made by the alleged fraudsters so our clients could trace the whereabouts of the alleged fraudsters and of the funds. An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. IP stands for “Internet Protocol,” which is the set of rules governing the format of data sent via the internet or local network. The opposing parties objected the request of our firm for the issuance of a disclosure order, but the court did not sustain their objections and accepted our position that even if the IP address can be considered as personal data of an individual, a disclosure order can be granted by the Court.

This is a high importance legal case and possibly the first case in Cyprus where a Civil Court has ordered that the IP address of specific individuals should be disclosed.