The European Central Bank has revoked the licence of Malta’s Pilatus Bank after its chairman was arrested in the US on money-laundering charges.<\/p>\n
Malta’s Financial Services Authority announced the move, saying it had called on the ECB to take action.<\/p>\n
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car-bomb a year ago, accused the bank of processing corrupt payments.<\/p>\n
The EU has been investigating the bank ever since her murder.<\/p>\n
However, it was not until March that the Maltese authorities froze the bank’s assets, following the arrest of its chairman, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad.<\/p>\n
According to an indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, he is accused of involvement in a scheme to evade US economic sanctions against Iran.<\/p>\n
The Maltese FSA recommended withdrawing the bank’s licence in June, but the process took longer than expected because of legal obstacles, the ECB has said.<\/p>\n
Caruana Galizia reported on Malta for\u00a0the Panama Papers investigation into offshore accounts which conceal secret payments<\/a>\u00a0to politicians and other powerful figures.<\/p>\n She accused Pilatus Bank of various crimes, including dubious payments to senior Maltese and Azerbaijani figures.<\/p>\n Three men suspected of killing her – brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and their friend Vince Muscat – were arrested during a police operation in December 2017.<\/p>\n They were charged with murder and pleaded not guilty at a court hearing. They remain in custody.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"