Minister has stiff reply on Pilatus money laundering investigation

The Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis has said that he will not be interfering in confidential police investigations when asked about investigations into money laundering by a bank in Malta. 

In a parliamentary question, opposition spokesperson for justice Jason Azzopardi, asked Zammit Lewis whether it was true that an inquiring magistrate had recommended to the Attorney General to begin criminal action over money laundering by a bank, its owner, the money laundering reporting officer and its director. 

Azzopardi also asked the justice minister whether the magistrate had called for an investigation into work by the FIAU and the MFSA over the licensing of the same bank. 

MaltaToday understands the reference is to the recent conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank. 

Slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had claimed that former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had used Pilatus Bank to hide transactions executed by himself and former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. 

The minister rebutted Azzopardi by telling him that magisterial inquiries are confidential, and Azzopardi as a lawyer should know better than to intervene in such matters. 

“We all know that a fundamental process of the rule of law is that of having the institutions working without political interference,” he said. 

He also went on to question from where Azzopardi had sourced the information, which by its very nature is secret. 

“The information could prejudice criminal action,” he said.