New Book Reveals How Maltese Law Enforcement Obstructed Efficient Prosecution Of Pilatus Bank!

Mark Lagarde
Sun, 16 Apr 2023 11:52:21 +0000
Corruption, Malta Financial Services Authority, Antoniella Gauchi, Christopher Buttigieg, Edwina Licari, Ivan Zammit, Kenneth Farrugia, Mehmet Tasli, Michael Xuereb, Michelle Mizzi Buontempo, Pilatus Bank, Robert Aquilina, Victoria Buttigieg

A book released in Malta by NGO Repubblika concludes that police officers investigating suspected money laundering at MFSA’s licensed Pilatus Bank were searching for justifications for the decision not to prosecute top bank officials. The author Robert Aquilina exposed how police officers discussed how to justify the decision by Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg not to prosecute Pilatus Bank‘s former top executives, Antoniella Gauci and Mehmet Tasli.

In his book Pilatus: A laundromat bank in Europe, NGO Repubblika’s president Robert Aquilina defied a court ban to make the evidence public in what he described as the best interest of justice revolving around the now-shuttered bank. The book includes unpublished court documents, emails and reports, and a 400-page independent financial investigation on Pilatus Bank’s shady dealings in his new book Pilatus: A Laundromat Bank in Europe.

Emails published in the book show how police officers discussed how they needed “points” to justify the decision by Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg not to prosecute Pilatus Bank’s former risk manager Antoniella Gauci (pictured left) and operations supervisor Mehmet Tasli despite a magisterial inquiry recommending money-laundering charges against them.

The emails also suggested that the police did not have a justification for their request for such a declaration and were scrambling to find reasons to back up their recommendation to the AG. The emails were copied to their boss, Alexandra Mamo, the former deputy police commissioner and head of the police Financial Crimes Investigations Department.

The 700-plus page book chronicles the story of the bank set up in Malta in 2013 by Iranian businessman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad and how investigations into reports of money laundering by the bank were buried and hushed up.

In the book, Aquilina also details how Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà and Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg ignored the 600,000-page inquiry by Magistrate Ian Farrugia into the bank.

In one email sent on July 13, 2021, police officer Keith Vella, a former member of the anti-money laundering squad, to fellow officers Claire Borg and Pauline Bonello, he asked his colleagues to “think about a few points related to Antoniella and Tasli’s nolle prosequi.”

The author Robert Aquilina says the email was clearly intended to find reasons for the police to be able to say they did not have enough evidence at hand to proceed with a prosecution and retrospectively support the decision to request the issuance of a nolle prosequi.

The book cites a source suggesting that the intention had been to shield Antoniella Gauci from prosecution “possibly, indeed probably, due to her and her family’s close political connections.” Allegedly, Gauci’s father and brother were political canvassers for Prime Minister Robert Abela, who had been the Gauci family business’ lawyer while still in private practice.

MFSA never took action whatsoever against Antoniella Gauci. The MFSA’s Executive Committee comprises Kenneth Farrugia, Michelle Mizzi Buontempo, Edwina Licari, Christopher Buttigieg, Michael Xuereb, and Ivan Zammit.