PN leader Adrian Delia

PN leader Adrian Delia gave a brief history lesson, reminding the House how in the 1990s, when the Iron Curtain was lifted, a lot of funds were coming out of that region to many jurisdictions such as Malta and Cyprus. He said that at the time, Malta had taken a decision on whether to accept any funds without question or whether to try and offer a better service to foreign investors through financial service provision, setting up laws which would make Malta a serious and professional country in this regard. The latter was chosen and Malta’s reputation was slowly built up.

He said all this was slowly being undone through this series of scandals, such as the Panama Papers scandal, in which Minister Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were found to have secret offshore structures, and all the other scandals that followed.

“Instead of taking action when the stories were revealed, everything is being done to protect the people implicated.”

Months after it was revealed that American institutions had established that the funds used to set up Pilatus Bank had stemmed from criminal proceeds, the bank’s licence has still not been revoked.

In comments to this newsroom, the MFSA had said that Pilatus Bank investigations were ongoing.

“Are we attracting serious investment opportunities? Or are we attracting less serious or professional investment opportunities? Maybe those investors have peace in the possibility of being protected by the government should they land in hot water.”

Delia said that statistics show that many banks were leaving Malta due to the turmoil over the past few years, and because no legitimate action had been taken against the key players.

He questioned why the government would oppose recommendations in the rule of law report, such as the recommendation to ensure that people managing and taking care of the operations of the MFSA have no conflicts of interest.

“What’s the government’s problem with this one? Is it because they want to take control? Is it because they want to continue protecting the big fish?”

He slammed the government for protecting the big players and coming down hard on the ordinary citizen. Fund scandal.

Nemea Bank, whose director at one point was former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, had come under fire for not following regulatory requirements. Ultimately, through the prompting of the European Central Bank and the Malta Financial Services Authority, the bank’s assets were transferred under the control of the authorities and eventually the bank’s licence was withdrawn.

The Falcon Funds scandal implicated former PN Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who was a director of a pension fund that lost millions in Swedish pensioners’ savings. The MFSA had banned Fenech and another director from taking on new appointments with licensed financial services for two years.

In the case of Pilatus Bank, which became a household name after slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed how the bank had been used as a vehicle for Azerbaijani PEPs and allegedly used to facilitate a transfer to the prime minister’s wife, action was only taken by the MFSA after Ali Sadr was arrested in the US last March.

Despite the numerous allegations and supporting documentation through leaked FIAU reports, action had not been taken to suspend Pilatus Bank’s activities, with the MFSA itself claiming that its investigations into the bank are ongoing.

After the Iranian banker was arrested, the MFSA took over Pilatus Bank’s activities and assets.

Scicluna slammed the PN for saying due diligence had not been carried out properly by the MFSA when it was reviewing Pilatus Bank’s application, saying that the board members at the time were the same ones the PN had appointed when it was still in power.