Watch: Jeremy Cassar Torregiani Warns National Bank Case Could End Up At European Courts
After winning a decades-long court case over the way Bank of Valletta was “stolen” from his father and other businessmen, Jeremy Cassar Torregiani warned that the case could end up in the European courts unless a solution is found.
“This judgement brought out that this bank was not bankrupt,” Cassar Torregiani told Lovin Malta, referring to the National Bank of Malta, which was nationalised without compensation by Dom Mintoff’s Labour government in 1973 and turned into BOV.
“If it was not bankrupt, why was it stolen? And if it was stolen, why was it resold? There are Maltese people who innocently bought shares in BOV thinking they’re buying shares in a legitimate business. From inception, the taking of it and the passing of it onto BOV was illegal.”
“Although the judge protected the legality of the transfer for obvious reasons, he established without any form of doubt that what was taken had value and defrauded and violated the rights of the shareholders who invested in the enterprise.”
Judge Joseph Micallef ordered the government to pay €111 million to 82 National Bank of Malta shareholders. The government is appealing the decision.
However, Cassar Torregiani – who was only a year old when the bank was taken over and who has been fighting on behalf of its shareholders for several years – has warned he could take the case all the way to the European Courts unless a solution is found.
“It could go now to the European Court of Appeal, which would make it even bigger.
He maintained that he doesn’t have a grudge against BOV and had a business-related meeting with them a few weeks ago, but said he won’t allow the government and the Opposition to sweep this case under the carpet.
Indeed, he said that while the takeover occurred under a PL administration, the PN only compounded the problem when it listed BOV on the Malta Stock Exchange in the early 1990s, opening it up to the general public.
“Let’s not panic and make it seem as though there aren’t solutions, but any solution must start with identifying the problem,” he said.
“The leaders of this country must acknowledge that we have a problem on this front; it cant just keep ignoring it and expect people to shut up. It’s a problem from an economic point of view, but it’s more of a problem from a justice angle. Either we upload human rights or we don’t, we cant run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.”
“Government must sit down with the Opposition, because both of them cooked this stew, and with representatives of shareholder groups, and come up with a solution.”
“An apology would go a long way but, putting any vanity aside, they should definitely negotiate and come up with a short, medium, and long-term strategy.”
Lovin Malta reached out to BOV but they declined to a comment, with a spokesperson stating that “the bank is not involved in this dispute”.
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