Arrest Warrants For Pilatus Bank Owner And Key Figures Published By Repubblika
International and European Arrest Warrants against Pilatus Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad and other members of the top brass of the controversial company issued by a Maltese court have been published by activist group Repubblika.
The warrants were presented earlier today in a case instituted by Repubblika against the Attorney General to force them to act on the findings of the Pilatus Bank inquiry.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, Pilatus Bank operations chief Luis Rivera, operations supervisor Mehmet Tasli, director Hamidreza Ghambari and chief risk officer Antoniella Gauci.
The warrants were signed on 24th February 2021 by Magistrate Ian Farrugia, a few months after the inquiry’s conclusion.
Ali Sadr and Rivera are both believed to be currently residing in the USA.
Interestingly, Tasli had even come to Malta on 20th October 2021 and testified in court. Still, no arrest was made.
Malta’s inaction on EAWs and IAWs has been under the microscope in recent months, particularly after the cases involving Iosif Galea and Ryan Schembri.
The court seemed to treat the reveal with contempt, with lawyers pressing Aquilina on whether he considers himself a journalist.
After the sitting, Aquilina placed the documents on a memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia beneath the Great Siege Monument.
The now-infamous Pilatus Bank was made subject to its own inquiry after the European Central Bank shut it down over money laundering allegations.
The inquiry was concluded in 2020 and late last year, Claude Anne Sant Fournier was charged with money laundering offences in his role as Money Laundering Report Officer (MLRO) and director of the bank, but several other names seemed to have eluded the police.
The bank has faced criticism for the veil of secrecy surrounding politically exposed persons (PEPs).
It has been at the centre of various inquiries so far, including the recent inquiry involving kickbacks on the citizenship-by-investment scheme between Schembri and Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna.
It also played a crucial part in the infamous Egrant inquiry which found no evidence that the Prime Minister or his wife held any Pilatus accounts as had been alleged by the now-assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Several top officials held bank accounts at Pilatus, with a company at the heart of a US investigation on dirty money for Venezuelan politicians, Portmann Capital, transferring €120 million through the bank.
A network of over 50 companies and trusts secretly owned by Azerbaijan’s ruling elite also used accounts at the bank, funnelling millions into Europe. The Egrant Inquiry flagged the issue and said it merited further investigation.
What do you think of the inaction?
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