Wake up call from the Courts …. Pilatus Bank, Gaffarena.

Precisely a week ago, we woke up to the news that Pilatus Bank Chairman Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad had been arrested in the United States with an indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan. Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad is one of the Prime Minister’s closest friends, so much so that the latter and his wife were invited to his wedding – a wedding which did not feature hundreds and thousands of people, a wedding which did not feature a big crowd, but a lavish wedding limited to a very small number of selected guests. Food for thought, for those who want to think.

A week later, yesterday, we were given another news. The Gaffarena deal was struck down by the Maltese Courts. In its judgement, the court rescinded the contracts in which government land was transferred to Gaffarena in part-exchange of part of a property in Old Mint Street. The court revoked all land transfers and ruled that all transferred land had to be returned back to the State. Lest we have forgotten – the Gaffarena deal occurred in its entirety under the Prime Minister’s ‘watchful eye’ when he himself was the Minister responsible for Lands. Food for thought, for those who want to think.

Who is tarnishing our country’s reputation?

Facts. Let’s speak about facts. Fact 1 - The Prime Minister was one of the few guests invited to Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad’s wedding. Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad has now been arrested in the United and is facing a possible 125 years imprisonment. Fact 2 - The Prime Minister was the minister directly responsible for Lands and for the Gaffarena deal. This deal has been thrown out of the window by our Courts. It seems to me that there are some ‘wise’ men around. I’ll leave it up to you to join the dots.

Back to the Pilatus Bank saga. It is already inacceptable that the country’s financial regulator, the MFSA spent nearly a whole day deliberating what action it should take. In my opinion the action taken by MFSA leaves much to be desired, but that will be the subject of another opinion piece. In the meantime there is a long list of questions that still need to be answered.

1. How was Pilatus Bank given a clean bill of health in September 2016 by the FIAU?

2. How will MFSA justify its statements saying that Pilatus Bank had gone through a thorough and rigorous due diligence process?

3. Why did it take MFSA so long to take action (action that leaves much to be desired)?

4. Why hasn’t Pilatus Bank licence been revoked yet?

5. Is MFSA convinced that it has taken the best action it could have taken in the interest of the Maltese people?

6. What is keeping it from revoking the bank’s licence without any further delay?

7. Shouldn’t the government also come clean on the correspondent bank? Who is the correspondent bank? Is is BOV or is it another bank? What sort of due diligence process did correspondent bank perform on Pilatus Bank?

And what about the continuous notable absence of the Commissioner of Police? It seems to me that he likes sitting in the shade. At the moment we are in spring - the temperature is slightly warm and he is already in the shade. I can only imagine what will happen during the hot months.

A couple of words about the Gaffarena case. In just 2 months, Gaffarena made a whooping €685,000euro profit by simply reselling property that previously belonged to the government, back to the government. As if this was not enough, the government also passed on approximately 25,000 square metres of land in Żebbuġ, 5,000 square metres of land in the White Rocks area, 6,000 square metres of land in Ta' Kandja in Siġġiewi, 10,000 square metres of property at Ħandaq in Qormi and property in Manwel Dimech Street in Sliema – a total of €3.5million to give back to Government a

To conclude. Pilatus and Gaffarena. Two damning court statements within a span of a week. One common factor. The people are asking ‘who has bribed who’, ‘who is bribing who’ and ‘who is holding hostage who’.

The people have joined the dots.

The ‘wise’ men should do the same.