Cyprus top court overturns jail conviction on former bank CEO

The highest court in Cyprus on Wednesday quashed the sentence of a former chief executive of Bank of Cyprus, clearing him of charges that he sought to manipulate the share price before the country’s financial meltdown in 2013.

Andreas Eliades, who resigned from the bank in 2012, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in January on charges that he issued misleading statements about the lender that was hit heavily by its exposure to debt-laden Greece.

Eliades, who was at the helm of the bank for about eight years, was accused of understating a capital shortfall at the bank. [Reuters]