Washing machine placed on top of plaque commemorating opening of Pilatus Bank

A washing machine has been placed on top of a plaque commemorating the opening of Pilatus Bank in Malta, hours after its chairman was charged in the US with money-laundering activities.  The bank was inaugurated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in January 2014. Another washing was placed outside the offices of the Malta Financial Services Authority. The bank's chairman, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, has been arrested by US authorities in New York and charged with secretly funneling $115 million through the US banking system, circumventing the country's sanctions against Iran. The Malta Financial Services Authority has ordered him to step down as bank director, suspended his voting rights as a shareholder of the bank and ordered him to refrain from exercising legal and judicial representation of the bank. Pilatus Bank has been accused of facilitating corrupt activities and money laundering, claims which the bank has denied.