Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1017392
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 WEDNESDAY • 22 AUGUST 2018 • ISSUE 600 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY BirdLife gains control of Saline nature reserve for five years Air Malta to piggyback on Ryanair website BACK PAGE MATTHEW AGIUS REPRESENTATIVES of Pilatus Bank are in a legal tussle with the MFSA over its appointment of a so-called Competent Person, who would have full control over the functions of the bank until inves- tigations into every single transac- tions at the bank are concluded. Pilatus is objecting to the ap- pointment of Lawrence Connell as the Competent Person by the MFSA and this week will take its objection to the Maltese civil court. The bank will ask that the Con- nell's appointment be revoked and that Pilatus Holding Ltd be allowed to exercise its voting power and de- cide whether it is in the best inter- ests of the Bank as a whole to dis- solve the bank in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act. 3 Pilatus locks horns with MFSA over caretaker manager BOV FILED SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORT ON PORTMANN IN 2015 MATTHEW VELLA BANK of Valletta filed a suspicious transaction report in 2015 over its former client, a wealth management firm now investigated by the US for money laundering from Venezuela. BOV was banker to Portmann Capital Man- agement up until June 2015, but cut its clients loose when it closed its accounts and filed an STR over specific transactions made by the company. Portmann is owned by Swiss nationals Kurt Portmann and Yves-Alain Portmann, but is registered as a Maltese company. Portmann have now been sent a minded let- ter by the Malta Financial Services Authority expressing concern on reports implicating it in the US Homeland Security investigation filed in Florida. The firm has been asked not to open any new accounts or take on any new clients, to which Portmann has already reportedly complied. The spotlight has also turned on Austrian bankers Sparkasse, with whom Portmann banked after BOV discontinued its banking relationship in mid-2015, with both the MFSA and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit planning an inspection into its internal processes. PAGE 4 Bank of Valletta discontinued its relationship with Malta wealth managers implicated in Venezuela money-laundering probe after suspicions were raised on certain transactions PAGE 3