“Worst case scenario on Pilatus Bank appears to be unfolding”

MFSA must immediately release the ‘foreign intelligence report’ it had commissioned on Pilatus Bank

Following the segments of court documents presented by prosecutors in the US and revealed by PN MP Karol Aquilina, MEP David Casa stated:

“Not only do we have overwhelming evidence that Pilatus Bank was involved in criminal activity, in particular through the laundering of funds for Keith Schembri, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, and his associates, as well as the Azeri regime, but it has now also been revealed that the proceeds of crime were used to set-up Pilatus Bank."

Partit Nazzjonalista's Head of Delegation has drawn attention to strong suspicions concerning the legitimacy of the capital used to set up the bank in multiple letters to the ECB, the EBA, Moneyval and the MFSA. During a meeting with MEPs at the TAX3 Committee, MFSA representatives informed MEPs that during the due diligence process they had commissioned an ‘intelligence report’ by a foreign independent firm that cleared Pilatus Bank. The MFSA would not divulge the identity or further elaborate on the contents of this document.

“That this whole affair has been a train wreck for the MFSA is not in question. The MFSA should have protected Malta’s financial sector. Instead, it allowed Keith Schembri’s banker to set-up a bank and conduct criminal activity with complete impunity. If the ‘intelligence report’ that the MFSA claims was commissioned exists,c it should be published immediately. It might slightly mitigate the huge damage this whole affair is doing to the MFSA’s reputation and for establishing whether this is a case of gross negligence or complicity. What is certain at this point is that it is either one or the other”.