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Angolan Pop Star To Take ‘Legal Action’ Over Pilatus Allegations

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An Angolan pop star mentioned by the Russian whistleblower who reported dodgy financial transactions at Pilatus Bank has refused to answer Lovin Malta’s questions. However, his lawyers promised legal action against those responsible for this “unwarranted and defamatory propaganda campaign”.

Pilatus Bank is at the centre of a major political crisis in Malta which has triggered a snap election in Malta. The whistleblower is claiming transactions were made from the ruling family in Azerbaijan to an account allegedly linked to the Prime Minister’s wife Michelle Muscat, through Pilatus Bank. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife have categorically denied the allegations and so has the bank. A magisterial inquiry is now underway.

José Eduardo Paulino dos Santos – who goes by the stage name Coréon Dú and is the son of the President of Angola – was first mentioned on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog as a client of Pilatus Bank. 

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Source: Facebook

He was later mentioned again by the Russian whistleblower, who provided this version of events: “One day, some Portuguese lawyers came to our offices and said that they wanted to open a bank account for a Portuguese company. It seemed like all the shareholders and directors were unexceptional people, not PEPs, so the bank account was opened. A few weeks later, two Portuguese people flew back to Malta and said that shares in the company had been sold and that the new owner is a PEP, the son of the president of Angola. Mr Ghanbari (the bank’s CEO) behaved as though this was nothing exceptional. After they left, I told him, can’t you see what they did? They pretended to open a bank account for a normal company and then they changed the shareholding straight afterwards to a major PEP. Are you going to allow that? He told me that it is not my business and that there is nothing wrong with it.”

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In an attempt to continue fact-checking the whistleblower’s account, Lovin Malta tried to contact the pop star to get his reaction to these claims, specifically whether he bought a Portuguese company in 2016 which had opened a bank account at Pilatus Bank just a few weeks earlier. 

A reply was eventually received from a legal office representing Coréon Dú:

“As I’m sure you are aware, Coréon Dú is an award-winning artist and creative entrepreneur with an international recognized curriculum that speaks for itself. We were under the impression you had questions about his creative work. Your line of question has nothing to do with his artistic work. As such, I’m sorry we must decline your request and cannot provide any information for your record.

As per your other questions we avoid responding to false allegations. We also cannot provide certain details as we are in the process of taking legal action against those responsible for involving the creative professional in question in this unwarranted and defamatory propaganda campaign.

Coréon’s actual work is publicly known and is recognized and quite respected by peers and creative entities around the world. In the future, shall you have any question that actually pertains to Coréon Dú’s actual ongoing professional projects, we’ll be more than happy to discuss those.”

Lovin Malta also asked Coréon Dú whether he had any relationship with Malta whatsoever but no reply was forthcoming from his lawyer, except: “I have no further comment on this subject. All information available has been given in the email below.”

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READ NEXT: Egrant Exposed Part 4: Six Things We Fact-Checked About The Whistleblower

Christian is an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur who founded Lovin Malta, a new media company dedicated to creating positive impact in society. He is passionate about justice, public finances and finding ways to build a better future.

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