Justice Minister Jonathan Attard backed embattled Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg amid calls for her resignation.

“I have confidence in all institutions because that is the rule of law,” Attard said when asked by Mark Anthony Sammut in parliament whether he had faith in Buttigieg.

This comes after revelations that criminal charges against the owner and key representatives of Pilatus Bank were never filed by Malta’s Attorney General, despite the Police Commissioner urging her to do so. 

On 24th February 2021, Malta’s Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa submitted documents to Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg calling for criminal charges to be filed against owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, Pilatus Bank operations chief Luis Rivera, operations supervisor Mehmet Tasli, director Hamidreza Ghambari and chief risk officer Antoniella Gauci. 

The charges are all related to money laundering. 

European and International Arrest Warrants issued against the same people were also never acted upon.

The now-infamous Pilatus Bank was made subject to its own inquiry after the European Central Bank shut it down over money laundering allegations. 

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.

Should the AG resign?