Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that he has asked the regulators to formally speak with Commerzbank, who will then give their position.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday, and again today, tried to dismiss a story published in The Malta Independent on Sunday, on how Commerzbank AG, a major international bank and the second biggest in Germany, is no longer accepting declarations from local audit firms and must have facts verified by German units of those same audit firms.
The Prime Minister said that he has correspondence showing that Commerzbank denied all this. “Now I asked the regulators to formally contact the bank for it to give its position.”
He held that he has an email which, black on white, says the opposite. Asked whether he will publish his email, he said “I will publish what I want to publish.” Asked why he doesn’t want to publish the email, Dr Muscat said “that is the regulator's job.”
“I have asked the regulators to formally speak with Commerzbank , and they will give their position. Their position will then be published.”
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Earlier
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday tried to dismiss a story, published in The Malta Independent on Sunday, on how Commerzbank AG, a major international bank and the second biggest in Germany, is no longer accepting declarations from local audit firms and must have facts verified by German units of those same audit firms.
Dr Muscat insisted that our story was “incorrect,” (see video below) without justifying his denial, even when told that our sister paper had based its report on correspondence, between the German bank and one of its clients, which it had seen. So today we are publishing the email, while protecting the client and bank employee details, to show that our story is indeed correct.
PM on Commerzbank from The Malta Independent on Vimeo.
The e-mail correspondence between Commerzbank and its client clearly states that “due to recent changes our compliance unit does NOT anymore accept the declarations issued by Maltese auditing firms” and makes special note of facts needing to be verified by the Frankfurt units of audit firms, “especially in the application of money laundering regulations”.
This newsroom tried, to no avail, to get answers from Commerzbank about when this change in policy was made and for what purpose. Instead, the bank asked to see the original e-mail in full.
In view of the fact that this would only serve to identify the source, this newsroom declined and the bank therefore declined to comment on the matter.
Questions were also sent to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna in order to get a clarification on the affair, however at the time of going to print no acknowledgment or reply had been received.
It remains to be seen why an e-mail from Commerzbank, which has been verified to be authentic by this newsroom, says one thing, yet the Prime Minister flatly denied the claim and provided no information or insight into the matter.
Of interest is that the e-mail was sent soon after the peak of allegations surrounding the Prime Minister, his wife and Egrant Inc.
A year after Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri were each caught having a secret company in Panama, the Prime Minister’s wife has been accused of being the owner of the third Panama company acquired at the same time as that of Minister Mizzi and Mr Schembri.
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia also alleged that one of the daughters of the Azerbaijani President, Leyla Aliyeva, had transferred US$1.017 million through an offshore company with an account at Pilatus Bank, Malta, to Egrant Inc, the company which Mrs Michelle Muscat is being accused of owning.
The Prime Minister and the Labour Party (PL) have accused the Nationalist Party (PN) of repeating ‘fabrications’ in order to destabilise the country and undermine the sensitive financial services sector which both parties have historically protected and defended – and which also employs thousands of people while pumping millions of euros into Malta’s economy. They also accused Dr Busuttil of repeating the ‘fabrications’ in a ruthless bid to gain power, regardless of the effect on the financial services sector.
The PN and its leader, Simon Busuttil, have in turn accused the Prime Minister of being complicit in rampant corruption, of weakening Malta’s institutions, such as the police force and the Office of the Attorney General, so that they are unable or unwilling to tackle corruption at the highest level, consequently harming Malta’s sound reputation within the financial services sector.
Several sources from this industry have expressed concern at how Malta’s is nowadays regarded by foreign investors and financial entities, saying that our country’s reputation suffered a serious blow when the Panama Papers came out, and continues to suffer as long as the PM fails to take action against Mizzi and Schembri and until the magisterial inquiry into the Egrant allegations is concluded and made public.