Businessman accuses BOV of fraudulent transfer of money

A South African businessman who invested in a fund managed by Bank of Valletta has accused the bank of "fraudulently" transferring money to an Indonesian bank account. In a judicial protest, he asked the courts to order Bank of Valletta to refund him the €70,000 which had been withdrawn. Lawyer Alessandro Lia explained that his client, who was unnamed, invested €100,000 in a fund managed by BOV subsidiary Valletta Fund Services Limited, in April 2014. Some time later, €70,000 of his investment was transferred to an Indonesian bank, without his knowledge. Dr Lia said it was only when the man received an e-mail from BOV querying a second request to have the rest of the funds transferred too that he realised that the €70,000 had been transferred. The lawyer said his client informed BOV that he had made no such request and asked to be sent a copy of the instructions upon which it had acted. The bank supplied him with copies of the two sets of instructions which it had received from an unidentified third-party who had used confidential details which the businessman had submitted to the bank, asking for the funds to be transferred to a foreign account. Dr Lia said the man subsequently...