The criminal court has issued an investigation and attachment order in the case regarding Exante, a company allegedly involved in money laundering which is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the USA.
Discussing a related situation in front of the civil court today, in a case where Exante originally said BOV acted illegally when freezing access to the company’s clients accounts, which contains funds belonging to its clients, both sides today reached an agreement where the civil case was not needed given that the criminal court order does the same.
Exante’s lawyers argued that the situation had changed since the filing of the case due to the criminal court order, and thus there is no need for the civil case if the bank agrees to lift the restrictions when the criminal court order is dropped, and no other orders by the court are issued.
BOV defence lawyers argued that on August 18, the criminal courts in Malta issued an investigation and attachment order which orders the company’s freezing of assets. The court heard that BOV had frozen the accounts, prior to the order, and the bank explained that as soon as a bank suspects money laundering, it has five days to file a report and during that time, it must stop all transactions requested by the client. The 1st request by Exante, for the court to find BOV acted illegally was withdrawn.
Madam Justice Schembri Orland said that the court will give judgement on the basis of the above.