Robert Aquilina questions who in MFSA was ‘creating obstacles’ in course of justice

President, Robert Aquilina, has questioned the testimony of a Malta Financial Services Authority official on Facebook.

On the 29th of July 2020, an official from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) had testified before Magistrate Ian Farrugia behind closed doors in the inquiry into the operations of Pilatus Bank, as in connection with alleged money laundering, Robert Aquilina said in a Facebook post.

“On that day, this official said that the MFSA had not provided copies of certain documents to Magistrate Ian Farrugia, despite previous orders. After Magistrate Farrugia expressed his concerns as to why the MFSA hadn’t exhibited those documents as it was ordered to, the official - while saying he did not know why this was the case - stated that the documents were stored in a safe within the office of the Head of the Banking Unit of the MFSA, and that only two MFSA officials had access to that safe: Karol Gabarretta and Ray Vella.”

The MFSA official, he said, also said that the documents were given to the inquiring magistrate after Gabaretta and Vella had resigned from the MFSA.

“The inquiry by Magistrate Ian Farrugia into the operations of Pilatus Bank had started long before, from November 2018”, Aquilina said.

“Aside from all this, over the past days I established two important facts in this regard that are of public interest to be made known.”

“Firstly, that Karol Gabarretta had submitted his resignation from the MFSA on 18 January 2018. The next day, he was removed as a key holder and as head of the Banking Supervision Unit of the MFSA. After a 6-month cooling off period, Gabaretta ended his employment with the MFSA. This all happened before the inquiry into the operations of Pilatus Bank began. So

Gabaretta didn’t have access, nor control, over the safe when Magistrate Farrugia ordered the MFSA to present the documents it had about Pilatus Bank.“

“Secondly, Ray Vella resigned from the MFSA in April 2019, meaning four months after the inquiry began. In this period, Ray Vella, together with another Banking Supervision Unit inquiry, still had access to the office safe. It results that Ray Vella, in those four months, received no request or order to present any documents regarding the operations of Pilatus Bank, neither directly from Magistrate Farrugia, nor from his MFSA superiors.”

“This means that the MFSA official who testified in the magisterial inquiry did not give correct information in his testimony”, Aquilina said.

“Aside from that, it is natural and legitimate for one to ask: ‘Since Karol Gabaretta and Ray Vella were not the ones who stopped important information from reaching the inquiring magistrate, who were the people in the MFSA who created obstacles to the course of justice?”

Aquilina also said that many months after the magistrate’s order the magistrate had seen the documentation that was being held in the MFSA’s safe, “however it is evident that for a number of months there was an attempt by the MFSA for the requested documentation not to reach the magistrate.”

He further said that the MFSA also has an obligation to provide an explanation to the public.