Christos Christodoulides was jailed in the UK for immigration fraud in a scandal that brought down a cabinet minister. He then absconded from prison, and resurfaced in Cyprus where he was later convicted for selling fake visas, says OCCRP in a report.

None of that has stopped Christos “Chris” Christodoulides from building a bustling immigration law practice in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia. In fact, he recently announced plans to expand to two more cities.

Reporters have obtained leaked emails related to Britain’s attempt to extradite Christodoulides, as well as legal documents from Cyprus, which tell the story of his misadventures in both countries.

Despite his criminal convictions, Christodoulides is still licensed to practice law in Cyprus. He even managed to renew his law license while serving out the remainder of his UK sentence under house arrest in Cyprus, reporters discovered.

But the Cyprus Bar Association is about to take action.

Internal documents obtained by reporters show that the bar association has accused him of behavior that is “disgraceful or incompatible with the legal profession”. Christodoulides faces a hearing in November, and could lose his license to practice law.

In addition to his immigration fraud convictions in the UK and Cyprus, Christodoulides was convicted of conspiracy in a human trafficking case. But the charges were dismissed upon appeal, with a Cypriot judge ruling that Christodoulides could not be convicted based primarily on the testimony of a defendant in the case.

Christodoulides declined to answer specific questions about cases against him in Cyprus and the UK. He told OCCRP and its Cypriot member center, CIReN, that all past claims against him have now been settled.

Even as Christodoulides was ensnared in the human trafficking and immigration fraud cases in Cyprus, leaked emails reveal that the UK was attempting to extradite him.

The correspondence shows that a judge rejected the UK request in 2010, because Cyprus had a law against extraditing its own citizens. Christodoulides was born in Britain but holds a Cyprus passport.

In 2014, a UK representative to the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation reached out again to Cyprus. The official asked if a constitutional amendment made the previous year meant that Christodoulides could be extradited, or whether it would allow for “his serving the UK........

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