insidestory.gr reveals new evidence showing that since May 2020, the Greek Intellexa SA, which markets the Predator software, had a second shareholder besides Thalestris, with interests in Tal Dilian. This is someone very familiar to us, Felix Biggio.
See Also: Predator surveillance - This is how they targeted politicians, citizens and companies!
In addition to the Irish parent of the Greek Intellexa SA, Thalestris Limited, interests of Tal Dillian, a shareholder in Intellexa since May 2020 was businessman Felix Bitzios, who, through a Cypriot company affiliated with him that he founded in September 2019 – and which, according to our previous reports, had a role in the relocation of Tal Dillian's companies to Greece after his "expulsion" from Cyprus – acquired 35% of the Greek limited liability company.
| On September 2, 2019, the company SANTINOMOS was founded in Cyprus with sole shareholder Felix Bigzios. This company, which, according to people who worked for INTELLEXA, played an important role in its transfer to Athens, defines as its purposes in its statutes the development of software and integration of systems in the fields of: -C4I (Common Tactical Operation Picture solution, defence simulation, command centers -sensor integration) -Spatial information systems, production of geospatial data, geographical information systems, remote sensing, photogrammetry. At the same time, Bigzios becomes the alternate consultant-manager of INTELLEXA and two other companies of Tal Dilian (founder of the INTELLEXA group), and the legal representative of the branch here of the also related Cypriot FEROVENO, which is being established in Greece. In these positions, Bigzios will remain until June 2021 (INTELLEXA, APOLLO TECHNOLOGIES and HERMES TECHNOLOGIES) and almost until November (15/11/2021) at FEROVENO. According to documents identified by inside story, in May 2020, the Cypriot Santinomo Limited acquired 35% of Intellexa AE. |
These documents are located in the General Commercial Registry (GEMI) and the National Transparency Authority could have easily obtained them when it conducted its investigation into the complaints of journalist Thanasis Koukakis, after his phone was infected with the Predator spyware, but it did not do so.
Santinomo Limited, according to the Cyprus Registrar of Companies, until very recently (June 2022) showed Felix Bigzios as the sole shareholder. This picture changed a few weeks ago, when on August 4, 2022, a document was posted with great delay to the Cyprus Registrar of Companies with a transaction that allegedly took place 18 months ago, in December 2020. Specifically, according to this document, Felix Bigzios has not been a shareholder of Santinomo Limited since December 18, 2020, that is, when – as the same document states – he transferred the shares he held in the Cypriot Santinomo Limited to the Irish Thalestris (parent company of the Greek Intellexa). However, as of December 31, 2020, Santinomo Limited, as we see from the latest available financial statements of Thalestris for the year 2020 (which were prepared in November 2021), does not appear as its subsidiary, as would be logical and correct.
Thalestris continues to state (in the same statements) that its stake in Intellexa SA is 65% – so 35% remains in the hands of someone else.
The history of Intellexa AE share transfers
On May 6, 2020, the sole advisor-manager of "Intellexa Monoprospi SA" Sarah Hamou confirms that the company Thalestris Limited deposited 26,000 euros in cash (as share capital) into the account held by "Intellexa Monoprospi SA" at Alpha Bank (Intellexa was founded in Greece in March 2020).
A few days later, on May 21, 2020, the then deputy managing director of the company, Felix Bigzios (he remained in this position until June 2021), decides to remove the word "Sole Proprietor" from the company's name, since, as he informs the company's members, on May 12, 2020, 9,100 shares of Intellexa (out of a total of 26,000, i.e. 35%) were transferred from (until then its sole shareholder) Thalestris Limited, to the company Santinomo Limited.
On November 16, 2021, Sarah Hamou (and another recently replaced company director) signed the consolidated financial statements of Thalestris Limited, for the year ended December 31, 2020, and stated that “there were no significant events after the balance sheet date that occurred after the end of the financial year ended December 31, 2020”. The consolidated financial statements, as we read in the same document, include the parent company, all entities it controls and its interests/shares in joint ventures and associates. The main activity of the group, which was founded at the end of November 2019, is to provide intelligence products to law enforcement authorities and the design, development and licensing of software and application products.
The financial statements of the group (parent and subsidiaries) were audited and subsequently signed on 25 November 2021 by an independent chartered accountant (on behalf of the audit firm Moore Chartered Accountants). On page 30 of the financial statements of Thalestris Limited, there is a table with its subsidiaries in various countries (Greece, Cyprus, Switzerland, British Virgin Islands and Ireland). Neither in this list, nor anywhere else in the financial statements, is Santinomo Limited listed.
As for the Greek Intellexa AE, its parent company, which according to the same table holds 65%, all it writes in its financial statements for fiscal year 2020 is:
"On May 12, 2020, the group disposed of 35% of its participation in Intellexa S.A. These financial statements include losses of €13,729 arising from the group's participations in Intellexa S.A. until the end of the period taking into account the change in the participation percentage.".
As we wrote above, according to a document dated August 4, 2022 and referring to a transaction that took place on December 18, 2020, Santinomo Limited (which owns 35% of Intellexa AE), passed from Felix Biggio to the ownership of Thalestris Limited. However, the latter makes no reference to this transaction in its own financial statements for the year 2020, which are the last published.
Inside Story sent written questions via email to Thalestris' representatives registered with the Irish Chamber of Commerce, requesting detailed information on which subsidiaries it held a stake in directly or indirectly as of December 31, 2020, however, by the time of publication of this article, we had not received a response.
Santinomo Limited's share transfer history and disclosure delays
Let’s now turn to the company Santinomo Limited, which appears to have changed hands in December 2020, but this transfer was notified to the Cyprus Registrar of Companies with a delay of almost 18 months, on August 4, 2022. Santinomo Limited was established in Cyprus a few weeks after the 2019 Greek elections, on September 2 of the same year, with Felix Biggio as its sole shareholder. As Inside Story has written in previous reports this past summer, Santinomo Limited plays, according to people who worked for Intellexa AE, “an important role in the transfer of Intellexa to Athens.”.
We remind you that from March 2020, in addition to Intellexa AE, Bigzios will become an alternate advisor-manager of two other companies of Tal Dilian (founder of the Intellexa group), and legal representative of the branch here of the also related Cypriot Feroveno Limited, which are established in Greece. In these positions, as we wrote above, Felix Bigzios will remain until June 2021 (Intellexa, Apollo Technologies and Hermes Technologies) and until mid-November 2021 at the branch of Feroveno Limited.
One day before the public disclosure of the connection to the phone of PASOK President Nikos Androulakis by the EYP (who had also been targeted with Intellexa's Predator and for EYP he learned about it along with all of us), on Thursday, August 4, 2022, Felix Bitzios appears to be selling his shares in the Cypriot company Santinomo (which owned 35% of the Greek Intellexa SA) to a trusted person of Tal Dilian, a Swiss national residing in the United Arab Emirates, who in the transaction represents the parent company of Intellexa SA, namely Thalestris Limited, which is based in Dublin. The date stated for this transaction, namely the sale of the shares in Santinomo by Felix Biggio to the representative of Thalestris, is December 18, 2020. This date is confirmed by a document posted on August 4, 2022 at the Cyprus Registrar of Companies. On August 31, 2022, another document was posted at a later date at the Cyprus Registrar of Companies, concerning the resignation of Felix Biggio from the position of director of Santinomo as well as the resignation of Finsol Enterprises as secretary of Santinomo. According to the document of August 31, 2022, the two resignations took place on December 19, 2020, while the details of Finsol Enterprises (name, address) are maintained even after the resignations for the correspondence of Santinomo, which remains to this day at the same address as before.
The inside story for the needs of the report we had published at the time had "downloaded" the relevant documents of Santinomo Limited from the Cyprus Companies Registry on June 7, 2022, where Felix Bitzios appeared as the sole shareholder and director and secretary of Finsol Enteprises.
According to two law firms in Nicosia, the delayed change of a company's details can be done. "If a fine is paid, nothing irregular has happened." The fine is 50 euros per day and 250 euros for each violation (delayed information on the transfer of shares, declaration of change of secretary and director). The fine is imposed by the Registrar of Companies. The application for the delayed changes is returned to the applicant, i.e. the company, if it is affected by other contradictory elements of the file, e.g. a director who says he resigned in 2020 has signed in 2021. In this case, according to information from inside story, this has not happened. The fine procedure began to be implemented in Cyprus in December 2020 in accordance with European legislation for "greater transparency," as legal sources said.
As for the truthfulness of the statements made to the Registrar of Cyprus, this is a matter for the court or the shareholders. The Registrar of Companies, which is essentially a file, does not enter into an investigation process. Unlike the Registrar, changes must be declared to banks within 15 days in order to be accepted for transactions. However, the almost simultaneous change of all the details of a company is not common, although it can happen when the office that designates the director or even the secretary changes.
Santinomo, according to information he wrote in the inside story in June and which was not denied, played a role in transferring Intellexa to Greece and in May 2020 entered its share capital with 35%, a percentage that gave Bigzio the right to "veto" the decisions of Intellexa's management and to participate in any of its profits. We tried to contact his accountant, Elias Kyriakides, but he did not respond.
Felix Bigzios's shareholding in Intellexa AE (through Santinomo Limited for as long as he owned it), regardless of how long it actually lasted, shows that this person was for some time more than a "simple" deputy managing director of the company that markets the Predator spyware. Let's not forget that Felix Bigzios, as we wrote in previous The Invisible Privateers of Predatorgate report, is closely linked to 45-year-old businessman Yannis Lavranos, who in turn, through his interest company Krikel, has emerged since 2018 as a preferred official supplier of the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Since then, the ministry and Krikel have signed seven contracts, six of which were classified as confidential, while according to information from Inside Story, this company is also connected (through a subcontract) to the legal interception system that the EYP purchased in 2021 from the Italian RCS Lab.
