MALTA BLAMES THE UNITED STATES FOR ITS FAILURE TO ARREST PILATUS BANK OFFICIALS

Ali Sadr Hasheminejad

The Government of the Republic of Malta, under extreme pressure from both reformist NGOs and the opposition Nationalist Party to take action to enforce the arrest warrants issued against senior officials at the country's primary money laundering operation, Pilatus Bank, has improperly placed the blame squarely upon the shoulders of the United States Government. As we have previously reported, there is now pending litigation in Malta to force the country's notoriously corrupt Attorney General, Victoria Buttigieg, to arrest the Pilatus offices and defectors against whom a magistrate judge ordered taken into custody back in 2021. She has failed to act, reportedly upon orders from Government.

One of Malta's principal newspapers, a known pro-government media resource, in a blistering article appearing today, has detailed how the US Government has purportedly interfered with Malta's efforts to move forward with the case but has not produced any clear and convincing evidence in support thereof. The article claims that there would be extensive delays in the American court system if Malta sought the extradition of Pilatus' Iranian owner and Board of Directors Chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, and former Chief Operating Officer, Luis Rivera, although it offers no valid information as to why such delays would occur.

 The article instead relies upon delays in responding to a Maltese request for information in an unrelated minor matter, and on the fact that Hashemminejad's American money laundering case was dismissed after a guilty jury verdict was entered. As we have previously noted, the US Attorney in New York dismissed All Sadr's case for Brady violations, after a prosecutorial error apparently blamed by SDNY on the FBI for failure to disclose what might have been information favourable to the defence was not based on to counsel, was made know to the Court. US Attorney appears to Blame the FBI for Discovery violations  November 2, 2020.

Neither of these are sufficient grounds to deduce and conclude that the United States is deliberately interfering with the Pilatus Bank prosecution in Malta, which is obviously being intentionally delayed by Malta over a period of years, to allow the individuals implicated in a massive money laundering operation to escape justice, due to their close ties to the country's ruling Labour Party, especially the disgraced former Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat. Malta's failure to enforce its money laundering laws in this case has caused it to seriously lose credibility as a Rule of Law jurisdiction amongst the other Members of the European Union.

Joseph Muscat

Compliance officers should take note that these efforts to cast blame upon the U.S. are merely an attempt at disinformation and misinformation, and should be completely disregarded as purely propaganda, make for local consumption, to direct attention ways from the Maltese government's intentional neglect at seeing that justice is done, regarding individuals responsible for operating bank notorious for transnational money laundering of hundreds of millions of US dollars, as well as Euros.