Maria Efimova alleges Pilatus Bank owner behind threats she received

Russian whistleblower Maria Efimova has alleged that Pilatus bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad is behind threats she started to receive over the weekend.

On Twitter, Efmova said that "several hours" after Hasheminejad was granted bail in the US, she started receiving threats and added that she would file a report with Greek police.

Efimova did not specify the nature of the threats she received. She made her comments in a tweet that included a link to the MaltaToday report on Hasheminejad's bail.

Maria Efimova's tweet blaming threats on Ali Sadr Hasheminejad

A New York court granted bail to Hasheminejad, owner and chairman of the Maltese private bank Pilatus last week.

The banker was arrested in March and charged on several counts of breaching sanctions on Iran as well as with bank fraud and money laundering, by processing the payments in US dollars from a Venezuela housing project to Iranian beneficiaries that included his family’s business group.

Efimova was behind allegations that the Panama company Egrant was owned by the Prime Minister's wife, Michelle Muscat. She later fled the island in June after informing the courts about intimidation against her family in Russia. The Muscats have strenuously denied the allegations and an inquiry requested by the Prime Minister is still ongoing.

Efimova is currently facing two sets of criminal proceedings in Malta. She has been accused by Pilatus Bank of defrauding it of roughly €2,000 in one case, and by the police of having made false accusations against Superintendent Denis Theuma, inspector Lara Butters and Jonathan Ferris, who had interrogated her.

Malta issued a European arrest warrant last year for the Russian national but a in April, a Greek court freed Efimova and did not extradite her to Malta. An appeal was filed by the Greek prosecutor's office.