WATCH: President Says ‘There Is No Legal Proof’ Of Pilatus Bank’s Wrongdoing
President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has said that there “has never been legal proof” of the infamous Pilatus Bank’s wrongdoing.
The President was responding to her first audience question at the prestigious Oxford Union Debating Society (at the 45:50 mark in the above video). The question was directed at Pilatus Bank and their involvement with Azerbaijani ruling elite, a topic which has captivated the country in recent years.
“The bank is closed, its license has been retrieved; as of yet there has never been any legal proof of what Pilatus Bank [was alleged] to be doing.”
“There have been investigations, which are on-going; the issue of Pilatus Bank was not raised [in Malta], it was raised in the US, so there is this whole complication,” Coleiro Preca said.
“However, it was a private bank, and the Maltese authorities have done what was necessary,” she continued.
The European Central Bank and the MFSA removed the bank’s license after its owner Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was indicted in the United States in relation to allegations to a number of financial crimes, namely the funnelling of roughly $115 million from Venezuela.
The bank has since sued the MFSA over its closure.
While the Egrant Inquiry did not find any links between the bank and the allegations made by late investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, transactions running into the millions between an account owned by the daughter of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to Dubai accounts were found.
In her address, the President also spoke on a variety of subjects including populism, female representation, reproductive rights, fake news and social justice.
What do you make of these comments?
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