Malta Reacts To Pilatus Bank Chairman Getting Arrested By The USA
The Pilatus Bank saga took another unexpected twist last night.
Just last year, the controversial bank was at the centre of the Egrant scandal that shook Malta to the core. Maria Efimova, a former Pilatus Bank employee, told late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that she saw a declaration of trust in a secret safe inside the bank’s kitchen which showed that the secret Panama company Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister’s wife Michelle Muscat.
The unforgettable image of Chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad hurriedly leaving his bank in the middle of the night with a packed luggage hours after Caruana Galizia’s report is seared into Malta’s collective memory – and many wonder what information was lost that night. At the same time, police commissioner Laurence Cutajar was famously filmed leaving a rabbit restaurant and refusing to comment on the Egrant story.
Now, with the news that the chairman of Pilatus Bank, Ali Sadr, has been arrested by a US federal court over charges of funnelling over $115 million from Venezuela through US banks, many in Malta feel vindicated.
Moreso, his arrest comes barely hours after Maria Efimova handed herself in to the Greek authorities, further fuelling the hope that Malta finally get some answers.
Many people felt that his arrest was long overdue
Including the former Opposition leader
Finally, the wheels of #justice have started to turn. Pilatus is caught and he can no longer wash his hands in #Malta. #Egrant #fenkata https://t.co/yJNqKhRorN
— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) March 21, 2018
And the current one
@JosephMuscat_JM Don’t keep on washing your hands. Suspend Pilatus Bank license now!
— Adrian Delia (@adriandeliapn) March 21, 2018
And some also hoped that his arrest could lead to developments in other cases
This is big – and I expect it will have ripples in the Cambridge Analytica case too as well as the murder of Daphne Caruana Galitzia. Pilatus Bank Chairman Arrested By United States https://t.co/kI93aD1lkP via @lovinmalta
— Ann Marlowe (@annmarlowe) March 21, 2018
Some condemned his financial crimes as especially contemptible
While others were wry-fully surprised to see any developments at all
Some people questioned the government’s silence
However, finance minister Edward Scicluna gave his two cents to Lovin Malta
And some Maltese MEPs asked why Malta’s police force weren’t actively investigating the bank even though the US forces were
Hours after the Chairman of #PilatusBank was arrested in the US, why do you think #Malta’s Police Commissioner has not yet directed his force to investigate the bank’s HQ in Malta? Has anyone seen him?#rhetoricalquestion #EndImpunity #DoYourDuty
— Roberta Metsola MEP (@RobertaMetsola) March 21, 2018
Ali Sadr Hasheminejad of @PilatusBank has been arrested in the US for illicit money transfers. In #Malta this crook was allowed to operate with impunity. Pilatus should have NEVER been given a license to operate in Malta. The Maltese authorities have A LOT to answer for. pic.twitter.com/5yvVBiRy7P
— David Casa (@DavidCasaMEP) March 21, 2018