US congresswoman on a money trail to Cyprus

A US Congress delegation is set to visit Cyprus to hold meetings on financial matters, led by Chairwoman Maxine Waters who vowed earlier this year to conduct oversight hearings into financial dealings of the US president.

(Click here for an update to the story)

According to Cyprus News Agency, the delegation will be headed by California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who chairs the US House Financial Services Committee. The visit will take place in Nicosia between August 27-29, with Waters and five other members expected to meet Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, Central Bank of Cyprus Governor Constantinos Herodotou, Chairwoman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, Demetra Kalogirou, and Head of the Unit for Combating Money Laundering (MOKAS) Eva Papakyriakou.

No further details were made available about the visit, which takes place one year after Waters announced plans to go on a money trail and, if elected, conduct hearings into connections between US President Donald Trump and two foreign financial institutions, Deutsche Bank and Bank of Cyprus.

Waters, the first woman and first African American to chair the powerful US House Financial Services Committee, famously said back in March “I’ve got the gavel, and I’m not afraid to use it.”

The Chairwoman vowed last year to scrutinize ties between President Trump and Deutsche Bank as well as Bank of Cyprus, calling for more transparency into the financial dealings of the American President.

Deutsche Bank, Trump’s largest creditor, has been fined by US and UK government agencies for failing to prevent money laundering, while the bank’s former CEO, Josef Ackermann, later became chairman at the Bank of Cyprus.

Following midterm election in 2018, democrats made a net gain of 41 seats in the House of Representatives, effectively putting an end to Republican control over a government trifecta. Incumbent Democrat Waters beat her opponent Omar Navarro, who was an ardent Trump supporter.

Waters, who became Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee after the election, has been supporting a push for impeachment of President Trump. In a recent interview on MSNBC, the congresswoman said “as a chair of the Financial Services Committee, I'm going to do the investigations.”

But according to media reports, some moderate Democrats fear oversight investigations might be a distraction or cause political damage to the party.