Tonio Fenech had courted Pilatus Bank in 2012 – report

The private bank currently at the centre of allegations, which have resulted in an early election being called, had submitted an application for a banking license in 2012 after being courted by then finance minister Tonio Fenech.

According a report in Illum, Fenech had welcomed interest by the bank’s chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad in opening a bank in Malta, rather than Austria, as was being considered by the bank at the time.

The report states that, at the time, Fenech saw the opening of the bank and being consistent with the Nationalist government’s plans to strengthen the country’s financial services sector, through private banking.

“In fact, many of the preliminary contacts was made by well-known firms, such as KPMG and Camilleri Preziosi associates,” states the report.

Moreover, it says that the bank’s board members were all people who were “not known to be Labour Party followers or sympathisers”.

“In fact, the [bank’s] first case against the Russian whistleblower was handled by lawyer Joe Giglio who then renounced his representation of the bank,” concluded the report.