Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1055420
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 NOVEMBER 2018 NEWS DIRECTORY | DEALS | QUOTES | REVIEWS OWN A BUSINESS? Why spend more in marketing when you can get more with less? GET YOUR BUSINESS LISTED! Contact us today on +356 2099 7555 | sales@findit.com.mt | www.findit.com.mt 7500+ Sessions daily 150+ Emails daily 28,000+ Daily page views CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In a confidential letter to the bank, the MFSA said on 15 October that it could "no longer reason- ably be expected to rely on the bank's assurances given the systemic failures to implement satisfactory measures" on anti-money laundering safeguards. While Satabank clients, mainly foreign residents, have protested the MF- SA's directive to halt any cash withdrawals, the regulator's investigation inside the bank have to determine whether a sus- picious transaction report will now have to be issued to the FIAU. The government's in- vestment promotion arm Malta Enterprise has now set up a hardship fund for Satabank's corporate cli- ents, to provide them with bridge loans to assist them in paying salaries. The MFSA has also said an initial group of Satabank's private customers will be getting their personal de- posits back. Previously, the MFSA appointed a team from Ernst & Young to monitor the bank in the proper conduct of its business on 15 October, but five days later it told Satabank to cease taking new deposits or affecting withdrawals, freezing the bank's operations. Satabank has protested exorbitant rates it is be- ing charged by EY, hav- ing to pay members of the international team up to €689 an hour. "It is absurd and incongruous that the competent person should charge the bank at the exorbitant and unreason- able hourly rates… de- pleting the bank's capital and reserves in the pro- cess, while thousands of depositors are unable to access their funds," the bank said. EY's international team rates range from €269 an hour for a senior official, to €689 an hour for part- ners. Satabank said it had no objection to hourly rates indicated by EY's "Malta team" – whose rates start at €90 an hour and are capped at €240 – but said the "internation- al team" rates were "an abuse of discretion since such rates are not objec- tively justifiable and are manifestly unfair." The bank has insisted it was liquid and operating well above minimum reg- ulatory capital ratios, and that preventing custom- ers to make withdrawals "created speculation and uncertainty on the bank's financial soundness and liquidity." Satabank offered some 5,000 clients an innova- tive online and e-money platform. It is the first time that the MFSA has appointed a competent person for a retail and commercial bank, and defended the need to introduce inter- national banking exper- tise. "It is vital we have the appropriate team which can competently deliver the best outcome for Sa- tabank's customers while safeguarding the Maltese financial system," the MFSA said. Satabank intervention came after FIAU alert CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 News of the investigation pub- lished last Sunday in The Times added to the pressure on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to sack chief of staff Keith Schembri and tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, whose secret Panama companies had earmarked 17 Black as a "target client" for the payment of $150,000 a month. Additionally, the Daphne Project consortium of journalists had es- tablished that 17 Black had received a substantial payment from an off- shore company in the Seychelles owned by an Azerbaijani security guard. Yorgen Fenech, the CEO of business giant Tumas Group, is one of the partners in the new €450 mil- lion gas-fired power station which includes Azerbaijani state gas com- pany SOCAR. He has not denied ownership of 17 Black. Critics of Muscat like PN leader Adrian Delia have insisted that he sack Schembri and Mizzi now that they are under investigation. But Muscat has attempted a legalistic defence by insisting that police are investigating 17 Black – the com- pany itself – not Schembri or Mizzi, whose criminal responsibility or not has yet to be established by police. But outside this legal sphere, many are the critics – some more vo- cal than others – who feel neither Schembri nor Mizzi have been above suspicion since their ownership of the Panama companies was exposed in 2016 in the Panama Papers. That Mizzi was the energy minister who devised the LNG project awarded by competitive tender to the Electrogas consortium, keeps raising serious questions. Police sources who spoke to Mal- taToday said that Latvia's FIAU was instrumental in its collaboration with their Maltese counterparts in supplying information related to 17 Black. Sources who spoke to The Sunday Times insisted the letters rogatory made this a separate magisterial in- quiry to that which Muscat, Schem- bri and Mizzi have appealed. The Times' sources last week said the police had received a 120-page intelligence report with support- ing documents from the FIAU, but when they reached out for informa- tion from foreign jurisdictions such as Dubai and Latvia, none of the requested evidence had been sup- plied. Muscat has made it clear he will only act against Schembri and Mizzi once their positions become untenable by a criminal investiga- tion. Delays in the investigation, or a lack of concrete leads that can get police to bring Schembri and Mizzi for interrogation on suspicion of criminal activity, gives Muscat time to retain his men by his side. 17 Black