KIEV, April 3 – Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest businessman, is among the people who have pulled their money from troubled Laiki Bank in Cyprus avoiding a "haircut" on their uninsured deposits, The Financial Times reported Wednesday.

Akhmetov’s companies are clients of a law firm associated with the family of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, who is under scrutiny for last-minute transfers by well-connected Cypriots, Russians and Ukrainians.

Akhmetov withdrew $30 million from Laiki in the first two weeks of March, shortly before Cyprus had agreed on March 15 to a "haircut" of bank deposits as part of a proposed bailout by the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

The transaction was detailed in a list of 100 companies uncovered and published by Haravghi, the Cyprus Communist party newspaper, and of three individual account holders who pulled more than 500 million euros from Laiki in the two weeks of March.

A spokesperson for System Capital Management, the holding company incorporating Akhmetov’s assets, told the FT: “The potential for a financial crisis was widely reported in the international media in advance of EU intervention. Therefore SCM management took prudent action to limit our banking exposure in Cyprus in the weeks and days in advance of the Cyprus debt restructuring.”

Anastasiades's family has come under scrutiny following the publication in Haravghi amid questions over whether a company managed by the president's son-in-law made use of inside information to transfer more than 20 million euros out of Laiki Bank days before its collapse.

Anastasiades urged judges investigating the country's banking disaster to examine transactions handled by his family law firm as "a priority" in a bid to defuse public anger over last-minute transfers.

The judges are due to deliver a report to the attorney general within three months, opening the way for possible prosecutions of prominent Cypriot bankers, lawyers and accountants.

A company controlled by the Loutsios family, which owns two car dealerships in Cyprus, emptied two accounts containing 21 million euros on March 12 and 13, according to the list. Antis and Katia Loutsios had earlier cleaned out two personal accounts on March 3 and 4 holding another 6 million euros. Anastasiades' daughter Elsa, a partner in the family law firm, is married to Yannos Loutsios, the couple's son.

The Loutsios family has denied wrongdoing, but could not be reached for comment. A statement by the company said it had transferred 10.5 million euros to Bank of Cyprus and another 10.5 million euros to Barclays Bank in London to buy real estate. (ft/ez)