The first curtain has come down on the infamous Pilatus Bank. Chairman, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, is now under arrest in the USA on charges of money laundering and other related infringements to US law and for fraud.
Reluctantly, in Malta, some symbolic moves were made by the MFSA to modify the Director's and Owners' roles at the bank. Something like the visit by the police long after the suitcases and their carrier had left the scene at Ta'Xbiex last April.
And life goes on. The usual circling of the wagons, the now well-worn and becoming threadbare insinuations that the PN are to blame and the pro-business flag is flown a little bit higher in order to try and catch a breeze.
Here is the kingpin of the whole engineered, purpose-built vehicle for the castle stores now in cuffs and under lock and key until a lawyer can obtain some break.
It may take at least 10 years to find the real owners of an off-shore account but in the meantime, the ship has started sinking. The Titanic has hit an ice-berg. A SLAPP in the face for one of its own.
Beyond the immediate threat to an operation from Malta continuing unimpeded, the repercussions on the bank's clients remain low, under the protection of the same authorities who earlier on issued the licence to the bank, expanded it and dismissed any reports that merited examination and investigation.
The limp response by the MFSA exposes the truth of the wide network of vassals that are currently meant to be leading this beggared island of ours. Even with Sadr in jail, they continue to be his vassals. Every agency, every client, every silent witness, is a vassal of the other but all are ultimately the vassal of the kingpin.
A complete reversal of order of our history and aspirations now stands.
Labour will now work on extracting the bank from the narrative, whilst trying to discredit all other players from the USA to the PN. The Commissioner of Police will swallow a few flies and continue in his non-"exertion" of duties and the Minister of Finance will have a coffee before starting his quiet day at the office.
A libel case filed by Keith Schembri, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister has had to be postponed to May after Schembri failed to appear for his cross-examination this morning, says the Malta Independent of Thursday.
The many questions raised about Sai Mizzi's role and remuneration remain in limbo as does her current status.
Konrad Mizzi plays the fool whilst enjoying a double privilege in that he still has a job and a portfolio and trying to distance himself from the bad guys.
The rest of the players keep one eye open to see if there is an angle for them in it, otherwise its 4th floor gym membership.
As for the general population, no need to trouble themselves over someone else's misfortune. 40,000 of them are foreign anyway. 700 of them have a position of trust within the government. Others are safe as houses and who is going to be persuaded otherwise as long as the opposition is another vassal of sorts or needing to be proved right?
So far back in time has the country been led that you almost expect to see a horse and cart ambling along bringing the sheep's milk to our houses.
But somewhere along the line, there have been minds at work, in America and not just in America we presume, to bring this man to justice. Their hard work paid off and they reached their objective. It is reported too, that work will continue in Malta.
Whatever had been reported about this underworld activity has been proved right. Hopefully the case against Maria Efimova will be dropped, in the same way that Sadr dropped the case in America against Daphne Caruana Galizia, the day after her murder, and she can go free. The bad publicity that Malta is receiving in the case of the arrest of Efimova is even more damaging internationally than the Pilatus Bank shame itself. It's hard to see how Muscat has let this one slip below his radar. Normally you would see him step in as the benevolent saviour, killing two birds with one stone. It must be that he prefers to have her silenced. Socialist MEP Ana Gomes urged Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to ensure police protection for Efimova and her family. "Danger is real," the MEP, who led a rule of law delegation to Malta last January, wrote on Twitter. I wonder how much that monument to solidarity outside Castille can withstand the storm around it.
We have seen it happen in the past that it is at dire times like this that Joseph Muscat decides that he has to call a press conference and go to the balcony to announce that he will do something small about what he should have done something big, a whole long time ago.
Last April 2017 when the Egrant story was revealed by Daphne Caruana Galizia, Muscat went for an early election.
In the meantime the country is on a precipice and engaged in a battle of wills with the EU, the rule of law and with the public itself, even over the tributes to Daphne. The office of the PM and the media under its control, are more concerned at taking aim at journalists and opinionists or NGOs using bill boards and brooms than they are at preventing further damage to our financial services industry, our name and our future.
What is being revealed by the case of Pilatus Bank should call into scrutiny every single other case being made against Konrad Mizzi's projects such as the Vitals Healthcare and Electrogas, Keith Schembri's alleged kick-backs and conflict of interest, Egrant, the FIAU reports, the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Gaffarena and lands corruption, the Café Premier hand-out, the brothel case, the use or mis-use of the social fund from the sale of passports, the way the lists of new citizens are being compiled, the jobs given out at election time, the influence in the courts and the way the speaker is controlling questions in Parliament. No matter that an election has come and gone over many of these scandals. They still remain relevant.
All the issues above reflect personally on the Prime Minister and his Ministers.
If we scrutinize them, would any of them affect the way our economy can continue to perform? No, not really. Unless it would be to actually benefit it by having a more serious and trustworthy leadership working with not just a privileged sector but with all business and social partners.
So, let us stop the whining and phobia about hurting the economy by calling out Labour to their actions and ensure that we do away with the corruption and damage being done once and for all. We are the economy, not Joseph Muscat or Konrad Mizzi. We go to work and build businesses and employ ourselves for an honest wage. We take our good name abroad and look for markets. It involves a whole lot more than going to have an espresso with the boss of the top employer in the betting industry. Our money keeps the banks profitable, our taxes keep our hospitals running. On the other hand, who is keeping our roads safe or providing housing to those who are in serious need of it and assistance for the elderly or good education for our children? And who can damage that economy and investment? Us or the government?
To those who insist on propping up Joseph Muscat and his cronies, I say, Get a Life.