Pilatus Bank files defamation proceedings in the USA over ‘harmful allegations’

Pilatus Bank has announced it has started legal actions in the United States of America against “individuals” it said had threatened its reputation with defamatory allegations.

The bank, at the centre of a storm over reports by Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia that it hosted an account for the Maltese prime minister or his wife to process a million-dollar payment from the Azerbaijan ruling family, said in a statement that its reputation had been threatened with false and defamatory allegations.

“The bank will actively pursue all parties and individuals, directly and indirectly involved in making such harmful allegations being broadcast on national television, radio, and published in national newspapers as well as online news sites in all international competent courts for commercial and punitive damages due to irreparable harm to the Bank and its stakeholders,” the statement read.

The American court it had taken recourse to was not stated in the announcement. The bank did not identify the individuals it would take legal action against.

According to Caruana Galizia, the bank was said to have held a declaration of trust in a safe, which declaration was supplied by auditor Brian Tonna and stated that Muscat’s wife Michelle was the beneficial owner of an offshore company in Panama.

A former bank employee, who was sacked after two months and is now facing charges of defrauding the bank over travel allowances, has volunteered information on to the magistrate investigating the allegations.

The magisterial inquiry was requested on a complaint to the police lodged by Joseph Muscat’s lawyers.

Pilatus Bank’s chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad has appeared before the magisterial inquiry and presented Magistrate Aaron Bugeja with the bank’s entire IT platform and CCTV footage, after it was accused in the press of having smuggled out evidence.

“The Bank has also filed a criminal complaint with the Maltese police for the leak of confidential documents and information from documents of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) about the Bank to third parties not privy to such information, that were subsequently published,” the bank said.

Contents of the FIAU report were reported in The Sunday Times and other newspapers, detailing the allegations that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil took to Magistrate Aaron Bugeja. The report requested that the police investigate a suspicious €100,000 transaction from Brian Tonna’s offshore company, and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri’s bank account at Pilatus, which was believed to be a kickback on the sale of Maltese citizenship. Both men have denied the claim, now under investigation by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, saying the payment was for a 2012 loan.

“The Bank takes matters of confidentiality extremely seriously and will pursue all individuals and parties who have disclosed information that the law considers as confidential, as well for misappropriating confidential information of the Bank including trade secrets with swift international and local legal actions for all damages,” the bank said.

“There are laws that prohibit the Bank from discussing FIAU or any regulatory agency reports and their contents and thereby prevent it from being able to respond directly to statements published alongside the ‘leaked’ alleged FIAU report. Those laws also require that such reports, their contents, and conclusive findings are treated with utmost confidentiality.”

Pilatus Bank said it operated at “the highest international financial, regulatory, and compliance standards” and would not allow its integrity and reputation to be used for political gain.