Nine things we learnt about Pilatus owner Ali Sadr from the US Attorney’s bail dossier

The full account of the bail document appears in MaltaToday on Sunday: read it here

1. Hasheminejad owns multiple companies: among them Altitude Capital, Pilatus Bank, Sapene LLC and Pitache LLC, First Canton General Trading and Stark General Trading, both with accounts at a UAE bank, Alpene in Hong Kong, the Stratus subsidiaries in Switzerland and Turkey, has an alleged interest in a Cypriot building project, and millions in cash in accounts there, property in Washington, and an offshore account in the British Virgin Islands.

2. His monthly income is $21,000 and he has business accounts in Cyprus that generate some $3 million a year for him.

3. Hasheminejad initially sought asylum in the United States in 2003, claiming he was “certain that if I return to Iran my life would be in danger”, that his family had problems with the ruling regime in Iran, and that he was once tortured by Iranian authorities because of his political beliefs. In 2004, immigration authorities granted him application for asylum.

4. In 2010, immigration authorities revoked the asylum because they determined that Hasheminejad’s attorney had submitted a fraudulent affidavit when the translation from his Farsi affidavit contained significant omissions and embellishments. When Hasheminejad was ordered to appear at the immigration court in November 2010, he left the country voluntarily prior to that appearance. Then in 2012, he submitted another affidavit saying he left the US because he was in “dire” financial circumstances. But between 2010 and 2015, Hasheminejad travelled to Iran on well over 20 occasions to conduct business and visit his family.

5. Prosecutors say Hasheminejad’s statements in his 2012 immigration affidavit on his financial circumstances are “grossly exaggerated”: despite reporting that he was in dire economic circumstances as of 2010, by 2012 Hasheminejad reported to the United States Department of the Treasury that he had approximately $37 million in assets. This was right about the time he was starting the licensing process in Malta to start Pilatus Bank.

6. The prosecutors also accused Hasheminejad of “consistently underrepresenting his assets and overseas entities and accounts” to the Department of the Treasury. In 2012, Hasheminejad reported approximately $37 million on his foreign bank account report (FBAR); in 2013, he had $46 million; in 2014 he reported $47 million; then in 2015, he reported $16 million and just €1.5 million for 2016

7. The US prosecutors also said that it appears Hasheminejad has at least four passports from St Kitts & Nevis, apart from his Iranian passport. Hasheminejad obtained his St Kitts & Nevis citizenship in 2009 through the citizenship-by-investment programme there for $250,000.

8. His Washington residence was listed for sale at around 1 February, 2018, and that listing was removed on about 31 March after the arrest, suggesting that he had no intention of residing at that property before he was arrested.

9. Between 2013 and 2015, Hasheminejad travelled over 100 times, including multiple trips to Istanbul, Zurich, Dubai, London, Malta, and Tehran. At various times since 2010, Hasheminejad has represented that he resides in Dubai, Belarus, Switzerland, and the United States.