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Bartolo uses parliamentary privilege to hit out at ‘freemasons’ in Bank of Valletta
Bank deplores Labour MP’s statements on property fund fiasco
2 June 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Labour MP Evarist Bartolo yesterday accused the financial regulator of abdicating its duty in the way it handled the investigations into the La Valette multi-manager property fund.
Speaking in parliament, Bartolo took up the mantle of some 2,000 investors which he said were sold a product that was designed only for experienced investors.
In a jibe at anti-divorce campaigner Andre Camilleri, the deputy chairman of the MFSA, Bartolo – a promoter of the divorce bill – said it was “useless to have people promote the family when as regulators they have the power to prohibit these scandals from taking place… and instead they give banks immunity to sell such professional products to retail clients.
“If the MFSA is allowed to carry on this manner it would be an accomplice in a scandal that has broken hundreds of families,” Bartolo said.
Bartolo also hit out what he called was a “network of freemasons scratching each other’s backs” when he said the MFSA was not acting on evidence that revealed insider trading.
“There are people who don’t want the MFSA to issue information that will reveal a network of freemasons,” he said of the reports into the investigations being carried out by the MFSA. The regulator is contesting demands to issue the reports to each investor involved in the property fund saga.
Bank of Valletta said it greatly deplored his remarks. “They are both grossly offensive and completely untrue and without foundation,” a BOV spokesperson said.
The Labour MP also said the mater was now up to government to reckon with, referring specifically to finance minister Tonio Fenech, who appoints the bank’s chairman as the largest institutional shareholder.
Bartolo also said BOV employees and directors had alerted friends and family who had invested in the property fund, which led to the withdrawal of some €16 million from the fund – almost 16% of its total value. “The MFSA has the evidence of how this took place and the names of the people involved, and yet it does nothing about it… it is becoming an accomplice of this scandal. If it betrays its mission and supports BOV’s directors it would be destroying families and not strengthening them.”
Bartolo said the MFSA reports into the property fund saga would reveal a picture of society similar to that in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “where some families, those with networks, are more equal than others…”.
Bartolo also dubbed BOV’s compensatory 75c share offer as a “meagre offer” in return to drop any legal liability against the bank. “We need the MFSA to take steps and protect the families conned and robbed, and not ‘nice’ words about the family as those in the MFSA’s echelons say.”
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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BOV has a long culture of conflicts of interest. A friend of mine told me how someone contacted him to rent him an apartment after he had just paid his rent at a BOV branch. Its very common to find BOV employees involved in after hour work that creates conflicts of interest. Other personal experience was a bank manager going out of his way to protect a con-artist issuing cheques which are not covered - coz the con-artist employed his daughter. And what about meddling from Austin Gatt's ministry in the affairs of BOV?
We can all go around now acting surprised when the problems were there for all to see and nobody did anything to stop them. Let's sweep this other scandal under the carpet and see how bad things will get before we can no longer ignore them.
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I must align myself with Honesty on this one. I have always had the greatest of respect for Evarist Bartolo as a well read, balanced and temperate politician. On this one he has however gone completely overboard, whether he says things in parliament or outside, matters very little in so far as his credibility goes. How can we expect the general public to act responsibly and in measured tones about a matter as this when our politicians cannot themselves act in a responsable manner and they simply speak out without knowing the facts? I have not so far come across one single fact being espoused by the Bonello camp - its all innuendoes that have the tendency for rebel-rousing, but very little substance. Evarist has been quoted as saying that the MFSA has evidence of wrong doing - and, if I may ask him, how does he know what evidence the MFSA has or that it has any evidence at all? If he does know - hecertainly should not and it would be highly irregular if he does. So please ladies and gentlemen, some measure and balance would make us all better off at least in showing some respect to whoever is reading us and not treating others like deficient plebs.
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Well done Evarist. Free Masons really described BOV. To save BOV in the long run from a screw up it will not recover from. If Malta wants to regain some respect and dignity it needs to make an example of BOV and all the insider trading that took place as well as all the mis-information and deceit. Culprits must be punished, investors refunded and the guilty SEND TO PRISON. If this is not done, it will confirm what most of the world knows - Malta is a free-for- all safe haven for financial criminals.
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@Mr.refner
For your information Mons. Mario Grech even issued a pastoral letter against corruption and poverty. You prefer to forget because you are on of the few anti-clericals who still exist on these islands.
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Il-kritika ta' Evarist gejja mill-qalb. Dawn in-nies bil-fors jarawh ikrak u jpinguh ikrah. TAGHHOM mahzun!!
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Varist hallik minn Camilleri u d-dwejjaq l-ghandu u ara dan:
https://mazzun.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/hitler-wara-r-referendum-divorzistan-fuq-facebook/
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Prosit Hon Bartolo, malta mimlija b'dawn ni-nies ippokreti, ma nafx kif il-knisja ma tajd xejn fuq dan is-serq ta miljuni ta liri ! Mons Arc Mario Grech jaf bijhom dawn il-hallilin tal-familji ?? jew biex inlabalbu fil-vojt ninqalaw!
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Personally I do not like BOV. I still remember just a couple of years ago with only a stipend ( 100 eur per month) and everytime I went to the bank they tried to sell me on of the valletta management funds ( aka 50 eur per month plans). How stupid can you be ? Do you expect a student with a stipend to fork out 1/2 of it for such plans ? noooo
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I think this issue has grown out of proportion now, with sure hidden agendas and surely helping the investor has become a side effect. lets act maturely. Going public and using the media is really unprofessional. at least lets keep focused on the issue and say whole truths and not saying only things that benefit those saying them. I am sure that Mr Bartolo did not go to BOV and ask for their facts but was only infleunced by others.
Also, one must give a chance and listen to BOV on this issue. This bank is a mainstay to our current fragile economy, supporting various people in these difficult times. The bank also contributes highly to Malta various ways and in the finacial crisis did not finish a burden on the taxpayer like foreign banks - How about that for a bank? I would also like to point out that notwithstanding this unfortunate fund performance, people like us work there who offer a good service.
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Prosit u grazzi varist. Wara li kxift il-korruzzjoni fil-kuntratt tal-B.W.S.C issa kellek il-kuragg titkellem car dwar il-korruzzjoni li hemm fil-kwistjoni tal-BOV. Kemm kellu ragun Alfred Sant meta kien jitkellem dwar " IL-HBIEB TAL-HBIB " !!
Mhux ta' b'xejn imwerwrin li jitilfu l-poter, u qed jinhbew wara l-Knisja biex forsi tghatihom palata fl-elezzjoni !
Eddy Privitera
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Tal-misthija kif wara dawn ix-xhur kollha l-MFSA tibqa' ma tippubblikax ir-rapport taghha. L-investituri f'dan il-kaz (hafna minnhom investituri modesti) ghandhom bzonn iktar ilhna bhal ta' Varist.
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Prosit - there are very few people like you on this so called sacred island.
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After the credit crunch fiasco I have more respect for even politicians than bankers. I never thought I'd say that but there you go!
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Malta ghandha bzonn nies bhal sur Bartolo ma jibzax jitkellem. Ara l membri tal PN halqom bis sarima. Rigward din il kwistjoni ir rapport ghandu jigi ippublikat minnu fih.Dan li qed jigri bil BOV. Meta tkellem lil impjegati kollha haga wahda - ghandhom pressure ghas sales u anki dan il prodott li supppost kien ghal seasonal investors. Imma bil pressure li ghandhom dan il prodott inbiegh lil kulhadd inkluzi xjuh, wage earners. Lil impjegati ma ghandhomx tort ghax jekk ma jilhqux it targets la ghandhom zieda fil paga u lanqas promotion jekk ma jigux imwarba gewwa rokna. Hemm bzonn li ministru tal finanzi jiehu dan il kaz f idejh. Jekk ma jaghmilx hekk, jara il madonna tibki!!!!!! Rigward il haddiema, il MUBE ghandha tara li dan il pressure fuq il haddema jispicca specjalment meta hemm collective agreement ghaddej
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Perhaps a better connotation borrowed from the social sciences would be 'patronage and clientelism'; this refers to "long-term ties, or networks, between persons and politicians that involved an obligation to grant favours and support- that is of mutual benefit to both patron and client" (P.151).
The British Social Anthropologist, Jon P. Mitchell (2002) argues: "the basis of patronage is the assumption that the patron has or controls access to political, economic or cultural resources that the client wants or needs (P.152)." Mitchell(2002) also observes that clientelism and patronage "define Southern politics as both corrupt and - consequently - inadequately, or not yet completely, developed".
Reference:
Mitchell, J.P. (2002). Ambivalent Europeans: Ritual, memory and the Public Sphere in Malta. Routledge. London. P. 151-156. Patronage, Clientelism and Mediterranean Politics.
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L-aqwa li Andre ggieled ghall-Knisja bhal suldat fiz-zmien il-krucjati!
Prosit Evarist!
Read:
https://mazzun.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/kamra-tar-rapprezentanti-jew-kamra-ta-opportunisti-u-bezziegha/
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Prosit Varist. Nixtieq nirrangrazzjak once agian wara tad-divorzju. Nixtieq insemmi wkoll lis-sur P. Bonello li kellu il-guts jibda to set the ball rolling fuq din l-AFFARI GRAVISSIMMA.
Not only the property fund investors have the right for the report but even all BOV shareholders and other thousands and thousands who have entrusted their funds (billions) with the BOV portfolio and wealthmanagement teams. The BOV itself should let us know what is happening. They pretend they are like sheep but they are wolves. What about the stock exchange? BOV is a listed company. How come there is silence from that quarter. Is the chief of the stock excahnge now suffering from a sore throat after his anti divorce campaign?
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I do not think that divorce and BOV should be mixed together. Divorce is one issue, there was a referendum and the yes vote won. BOV and mfsa are another issue and should be dealt as such.
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We live in an island of make believe, where there is a law which is applied for the common man, and an other which is interpreted for the big guys. Usually, the big guys are the ones who shower us with religious and social platitudes and threaten damnation and hell to those who dare question their status quo.
Meditate gente , meditate .
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The feemasons ONLY function is to look after each other and f--k everbody else.
Mark Fenech •
Well done Hon. Evarist Bartolo. You really speak the language of the people all the time. You want to take the masks out of these hypocrites, who are ok because they are not "cwiec maltin", allura tajbin zgur.
