Pilatus Holding challenges David Casa to waive parliamentary immunity
● Your threats will not stop me, MEP replies
Pilatus Bank yesterday said that Nationalist MEP David Casa “acted in an elaborate frame-up with a declared fugitive by the Courts of Malta, Maria Efimova” as part of his campaign against Pilatus Bank. The bank also challenged him to waive his immunity so that he can be sued for damages.
In a statement, Pilatus Holding said Casa wrote 50 letters to various Financial Intelligence Units. In all these letters he wrote that there’s “evidence of systemic money laundering by Pilatus Bank. Pilatus Bank’s clients are predominantly Azeri politically exposed persons. In addition, the bank has been shown to launder money derived from corruption for top Maltese government officials.”
The conclusions by Casa are proven to be pure fabrications, Pilatus said, and strikingly different to the conclusive findings of the Magisterial Inquiry into Egrant Inc. whereby it is confirmed that, “no evidence was found to prove that Joseph Muscat, Michelle Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi or John Dalli were involved in corruption, money laundering or suspicious transactions through the accounts of Politically Exposed Persons from Azerbaijan held with Pilatus Bank”.
Casa’s second “media stunt,” Pilatus Holding said, was to send a compliance report dating back to two years ago to the European Banking Authority.
He forgot to mention that since then and with subsequent visits the FIAU was able to establish the facts, and it has since retracted those statements and has deemed the matter closed.
But more importantly, the statement added, it has also become apparent how the FIAU Compliance Report got the facts wrong during its first compliance visit since the entire report was certainly tainted by Maria Efimova’s fabrications.
This also further explains why the report was written so vaguely with the wrong facts and perhaps intentions. Now that the facts are established by the judiciary powers in Malta regarding Egrant Inc., Casa can only show his good faith and live up to his ‘principles’ in his quest against Pilatus Bank by renouncing his political immunity, so that he can rightfully be pursued in the courts for the enormous damages he has caused to the bank and many hard working people of Malta and their families.
After all, why would Casa want to hang so tightly to his immunity when he is so certain of the serious accusations he is making and the credibility and reliability of his sources, Pilatus Holding asked.
“We have no doubt that Casa will embrace and accept this challenge; since anything less on his part is clear proof of his collaboration with the fugitive, Maria Efimova, and others behind the Egrant frame-up.”
Pilatus Holding Ltd. said it reserves in its favour all rights to seek legal redress according to law.
In reply, the PN head of delegation at the European Parliament said that the fact that Pilatus Bank’s owner is currently facing a 125-year prison term in the United States, charged with a string of crimes, including money laundering, appears to have severely clouded the bank’s judgment.
“Pilatus Bank has severely damaged our country’s reputation,” he said. “So much so, that its licence is currently being revoked. Until recently, Pilatus Bank operated in Malta with complete impunity, putting the financial sector and the many livelihoods that depend on it at great risk, he added.
“The assertion that the partpublished inquiry clears Pilatus Bank of these revelations is preposterous. The part-published inquiry had absolutely nothing to do with these revelations. This is part of a coordinated effort to deceive and mislead. It is dangerous and deplorable,” Casa said.
“Pilatus Bank echoes the labour party’s calls for my prosecution for having fought for truth and justice to prevail. They are the ones that must be brought to justice. Pilatus Bank thinks that their threats will stop me from doing my work. They shall be sorely disappointed,” Casa said.
Pilatus Holdings retaliated again, saying: “Mr Casa is evidently confusing an invitation with a threat – perhaps conveniently.
“Mr Casa is a fervent believer in justice and yet he needs to be reminded of one of its most basic principles - that the presumption of innocence applies to everyone not only to those he chooses to defend.
“Mr Casa’s words and media stunts cannot be taken seriously any longer.
“Therefore, in order to save him further public embarrassment we again extend our open invitation for him to take the first step to repair the damages he has caused.”