Repubblika demands action after ex-MFSA officials ‘hid Pilatus documents’

Updated to include Repubblika’s information exculpating two MFSA officials named in the magisterial inquiry’s transcripts.

Repubblika is demanding action on revelations the NGO’s President Robert Aquilina made in a televised interview on Tuesday to the effect that Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) officials hid Pilatus Bank documents from Magistrate Ian Farrugia.

Speaking in an interview on Net Television yesterday, Aquilina made the accusation that transcripts show how two MFSA officials hid documents from the magisterial inquiry into the operations of Pilatus Bank in a safe on the Authority’s premises that was only accessible by two people who are no longer at the Authority.

The documents were evidence intended for Magistrate Ian Farrugia, and their concealment came in direct violation of the court’s order to make them available, Repubblika said.

The documents in question dealt with the bank’s capitalisation and liquidity levels, but “the evidence only reached the investigating magistrate after the two officers who hid the documents resigned from the MFSA,” according to Aquilina.

“Hiding evidence of a crime is a crime in itself,” Repubblika noted.

The NGO added that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa’, former Deputy Commissioner Alexandra Mamo and Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg “have had the report of the magisterial inquiry on their desks for 21 months, so they have known about this shocking fact for 21 months.”

Repubblika said it expects Gafa’ and Buttigieg to “stop dragging their feet and take concrete action sooner rather than later on the abuse that has now been revealed.”

The people also deserve answers on whether the MFSA investigated the former officers’ actions and if any steps were taken in their respect, Repubblika said.

The NGO also said it expects the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General to inform the public why they have not yet taken court action.

The alleged concealment of documents from the magistrate involved two former top officials at the Authority’s Banking Unit, Aquilina said.

Repubblika on Tuesday published court transcripts from a sitting on 29 July 2020, in which an MFSA officer exhibited the disputed evidence for the first time.

The witness explained how the documents had been locked away in a safe within the MFSA building and that they were being presented to the inquiry for the first time.

“They were in a safe for one reason or another, I don’t know why they were not exhibited before, but they are being exhibited now,” he told the court.

Asked by the magistrate if the official had any idea why they were not previously exhibited, all he had to say was, “I don’t know.”

Asked by the magistrate if the documents that were finally being exhibited had been stored in some particular safe, the witness testified that they were stored “in a safe in the office of the Head of the Banking Unit” and that they had been kept there at the time because of the “case’s confidentiality”.

The witness added that it was only the Heads of the department, Kevin Gabarretta and his deputy Ray Vella, who had access to the safe and its contents.

When asked, the official confirmed with the court that the two officials in question were no longer at the MFSA.

Repubblika said the extracts from the transcripts the NGO published on Tuesday were “evidence that no one can deny”.

Officials accused of implication had already left the authority

The two MFSA Banking Supervision Unit officials accused of implication in cover-up had already left the authority, Repubblika found a few weeks after it published transcript’s extracts, pointing to the possibility of a higher level cover-up.

Aquilina later confirmed that both Gabarretta and Vella couldn’t have been responsible.

The NGO has demanded fresh answers from the MFSA as to who, exactly was responsible.