Money used to set up Pilatus Bank from ‘criminal proceeds’

A bail hearing in the US on Wednesday claimed that the money used to set up Pilatus Bank in Malta came from criminal activities in Venezuela, which landed its former chairman in jail. “His equity in Pilatus Bank is forefeitable because it constitutes criminal proceeds directly linked to the Venezuela project: the defendant [Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad] used money from the project (1 million Swiss frances, and €8 million) to established and capitalise Pilatus Bank in 2013,” according to a transcript of the proceedings tweeted by MP Karol Aquilina. Last year, slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia reported that the prime minister's wife was the ultimate beneficiary of funds in a secret Panama Company - Egrant - and some one million dollars had been deposited there from Azerbaijan via Pilatus Bank. The information, which was strongly denied by the prime minister and his wife, was partly-based on claims made by a former bank employee, Maria Efimova. Release report now, MEP tells MFSA The new revelations that proceeds of crime were used to set up Pilatus Bank puts the Malta Financial Services Authority into the spotlight, Nationalist MEP David Casa said. During a meeting with...