Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1017392
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 22 AUGUST 2018 4 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 THE MFSA had already fined Portmann Capital Manage- ment €62,000 earlier this year. According to Portmann's last filed accounts, the Maltese fi- nancial regulator carried out a site visit at Portmann Capital Management in 2016, where the MFSA instructed Portmann to cease providing payment services on behalf of its clients – the activities were deemed by the MFSA as falling outside the company's investment services licence. Portmann later said it was applying for a payment in- stitutions licence. The Times of Malta reported last Sunday that the FIAU was planning to fine the company €350,000. A source privy to the investiga- tions said both the FIAU and the MFSA had been analysing the situation for a long time. "No authority can simply barge in on a private company and shut it down. Many of these investi- gations take time. It's a matter of both due process and reputa- tion: being trigger-happy at the first sign of irregularity can send the wrong signal." Portmann has been impli- cated in the American investi- gation on a series of Venezue- lan officials and collaborators, including President Nicolas Maduro, who are suspected of having laundered US$1.2 billion in funds pilfered from Venezuela's state oil company, the PDVSA. Portmann 'unaware' it is being investigated by US A director for the company told MaltaToday that Portmann was not aware that it is the company identified in the Florida court complaint. Portmann Capital Manage- ment was set up in 2011 as a sub- sidiary of XPCT Limited, whose two shareholders are Swiss na- tionals Kurt Portmann, a Dubai resident, and Yves-Alain Port- mann. It had first registered its bank account at HSBC Malta through the offices of legal firm Ganado & Associates. Kurt Portmann is the founder of private equity firm Portmann Finances SA of Switzerland, and has served as a director on vari- ous energy and oil and gas firms. He is the founder-chairman of London brokers Optiva Securi- ties. Neither Kurt or Yves-Alain Portmann are mentioned by name in the Miami court com- plaint. According to the Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint – which the Miami Herald said concerns Venezue- lan president Nicolás Maduro – his stepsons helped launder US$1.2 billion in funds pilfered from Petroleos de Venezuela, at which point a hefty portion was wired to the Maltese intermedi- ary between late 2014 and early 2015. Using a series of fraudulent bond issues and investment funds, around €511 million in 10 wire transfers was laundered through Malta, according to the criminal complaint. The eight defendants named in the complaint are accused of taking advantage of their special access to the Venezue- lan government's foreign-cur- rency exchange system, which offers a far superior rate of ex- change than the normal market. That access was allegedly used to convert bolivars into dollars and euros as the defendants plun- dered the country's oil riches. While the Maltese private in- vestment firm that allegedly laundered, the ill-gotten pro- ceeds was unnamed, the crimi- nal complaint says it received upwards of €20 million for laun- dering the money at a 4% service charge. Money laundering investigation The alleged money-laundering conspiracy began in Decem- ber 2014 with the currency-ex- change scheme to embezzle the PVDSA revenues. But the de- fendants' associate later became a confidential source for the US investigators, who approached Homeland Security investigators in Miami about cooperating in 2016. According to US wire taps, the organiser of the scheme is Mathias Krull – a 44-year-old German national and Panama resident – who was said to have devised a way of putting US$200 million held in a Maltese finan- cial institution in the name of a straw owner. The emails show Krull talking about the money's movements to and from Malta. In the court documents, it is reported that the confidential source asked, "Are these the guy's sons?" – a refer- ence to Maduro's stepsons – to which Krull responded, "Nah. Don't, don't, don't ask." Krull, who was arrested at Mi- ami International Airport in July, is seen in the emails acknowledg- ing receiving money from the Maltese institution and assuring the confidential source not to worry about the Maltese institu- tion. The complaint named Ven- ezuelan national Jose Vincente Amparan Croquer, aka 'Chente', as a "professional money laun- derer" who is associated with "'European Financial Institution 1' in Malta, a private investment firm, which he uses to launder money." Investigators used email search warrants US investigators used email search warrants to confirm the flow of the funds "from PD- VSA to the defendants and other conspirators through European Financial Institution 1" (the Mal- tese institution). One email includes an attach- ment titled 'Operation 600k', which contained worksheets de- tailing the illicit cash flows from Venezuela to Malta. A work sheet titled 'Detailed Income from PDVSA' shows 10 transfers from PDVSA from 29 December 2014 through 3 February 2015 totalling €511,913,270.74. Another worksheet called 'Summary of the 600 Operation' shows that of this money, €20.4 million was assigned to the Mal- tese 'European Financial Institu- tion 1' as a 4% fee; €227 million went to Venezuelan conspirator Francisco Convit Guruceaga, €159 million to Maduro's step- sons, and €68 million to conspir- ator Raúl Gorrín, owner of the Globovision television network in Venezuela. Raúl Gorrín is also said to have sent dozens of US dollar wires through banks in Malta and Austria, including to avia- tion and yacht services as well as brokerage companies in Miami, Florida. Kurt Portmann is the founder of private equity firm Portmann Finances SA of Switzerland Director says company not aware it was identified in Florida court complaint A Public Warning Statement was issued by the Malta Competition and Consum- er Affairs Authority (MCCAA) against a travel agency on Tuesday, after it re- ceived "an appreciable number of com- plaints" from the public. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the MCCAA said that the complaints against the company, A.P.C. Travel Bu- reau Limited, related to issues concern- ing pre-paid bookings, which it said had allegedly not been honoured, despite promises by the company that it would rectify the situation. It said that a number of complaints had also been received by the Malta Tourism Authority, and that both enti- ties are collaborating in order to assists consumers. The MCCAA said the MCCAA has re- voked the company's license and hand- ed it an enforcement notice. As such, the company is prohibited from taking further bookings with immediate effect and is being forced to honour any exist- ing bookings. "This following repeated warnings by the Malta Tourism Authority and the recommendation by the Insolvency Fund Managing Board of the same au- thority," the MCCAA said. The public, it said, was being asked to forward any complaints to the Office for Consumer Affairs on info@mccaa.org. mt, or by calling 8007 4400. Alternatively, one can register a com- plaint online on http://mccaa.org.mt/ home/complaint or by visiting the MC- CAA offices at Mizzi House, National Road, Blata l-Bajda, between 8am and 12:30pm. Consumer affairs authority issues warning over travel agent