Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1222482
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 MARCH 2020 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA PILATUS Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad has been convict- ed of breaching United States sanctions against Iran, after a two- week trial by jury. With a judge yet to carry out sentencing, Hasheminejad was found guilty of five counts, the highest of which carries a 30-year prison sentence. Hasheminejad, 40, is expected to appeal the conviction, which found him guilty of conspira- cy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the IEEPA sanctions against Iran, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and money laundering. He was found not guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the South- ern District of New York, said Hasheminejad had been accused of using the US financial system to funnel over $115 million in pay- ments from a construction project in Venezuela his father's construc- tion company was involved in, back to his family's companies in Europe. The US Attorney insisted these violated sanctions against Iran because it benefitted Iranian individuals and entities, including the Iranian International Housing Company and its Iranian owner, Hasheminejad's father Moham- mad Sadr Hasheminejad. "As the jury found, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad created a network of front companies and bank ac- counts to mask Iranian business dealings in Venezuela and evade U.S. sanctions. For years, Sadr used front companies in Switzer- land, Turkey, and St. Kitts & Nevis to conceal the fact that $115 mil- lion in payments were really for his family business and relatives in Iran. Sadr's conviction shows that U.S. economic sanctions against Iran are for real, and violators will be exposed and prosecuted," Ber- man said. Hasheminejad ran a private bank in Malta, which he had licensed in 2013, and which largely dealt with millions in reserves owned by the Azerbaijani ruling family and oli- garchs. His bank was implicated in the Egrant affair, when the late jour- nalist Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed the bank had processed a $1 million payment from the Aliyevs of Azerbaijan to the wife of former prime minister Joseph Muscat. The allegation was dis- proven by a Maltese magisterial inquiry along with other alle- gations she made about Pilatus Bank, but by then the banks' other dealings for Azerbaijan had come under the lens of financial investi- gators. When Hasheminejad was arrested in Dulles airport in the United States in February 2018, the Maltese financial regulator shut down the bank and started an investigation. Hasheminejad was then accused of having taking steps to evade US economic sanctions by conceal- ing the role of Iranian parties in US dollar payments sent through the US banking system, from the construction of housing units in Venezuela. The project was led by Stratus Group, an Iranian conglomer- ate controlled by Hasheminejad and his family with international business operations in the con- struction, banking, and oil indus- tries. In December 2006, Stratus Group incorporated a company in Tehran, which was then known as the Iranian International Housing Company (IIHC). IIHC built ap- proximately 7,000 housing units in Venezuela in exchange for ap- proximately $475 million. Prosecutors said Hasheminejad used a St. Kitts and Nevis pass- ports and a United Arab Emirates address to incorporate two front companies outside of Iran to re- ceive U.S. dollar payments related to the project: Clarity Trade and Finance in Switzerland, and Stra- tus International Contracting in Turkey. Hasheminejad then carried out international financial transac- tions using Clarity and Stratus Turkey in a manner that con- cealed the Iranian connection to the payments, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. "During that time, SADR took several steps to hide the Iranian beneficiaries of these funds, in- cluding changing the name of the Iranian International Housing Company to just the initials, II- HC; directing employees to take down websites and articles from the Internet; lying about the own- ers of the front companies when asked by the banks; and altering payment vouchers and backdat- ing contracts in order to mislead banks about the source of the funds," Berman said. Hasheminejad directed the pay- ments be routed through Amer- ican banks to a Swiss bank, and finally to an offshore entity in St. Kitts & Nevis. Between 2011 and 2013, Hasheminejad's front companies wired over $8.6 million direct- ly into the United States, some of which were used to purchase property in California. Pilatus Bank owner guilty of breaching Iran sanctions Pilatus Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad found guilty of five counts including sanctions breaching and money laundering Ali Sadr Hasheminejad MATTHEW AGIUS A construction worker from Nigeria has been charged with murder in connec- tion with the fatal stabbing of a fellow countryman on Friday. Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Paula Cian- tar arraigned Okolo Innocent Okwudili accusing him of the wilful homicide of Amoubi Joseph Ezechi at a bar in Qa- wra. The 37-year old victim was stabbed once in the chest in what was described as a trivial argument and died in hospi- tal. The accused, 38, living in Bugibba, was brought into the courtroom wearing a face mask. He had an Italian travel document, an identity card and residence permit in his possession, but held a Nigerian pass- port. The court registry was opened with ur- gency to deal with the case. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges. The defence did not request bail at this stage. Inspector Zahra informed the court that the accused had come back from Italy on 28 February. It was stated that as long as 14 days had passed with no symptoms, he was safe to be investigat- ed and arraigned. Magistrate Astrid May Grima presid- ed. Lawyer Yanika Bugeja was legal aid counsel. Construction worker charged with Qawra bar murder MATTHEW AGIUS THE Health Department has filed an appeal against a judgment in favour of former OPM consultant Neville Gafà, who won a case filed by the department over overtime payments he was not due, after the court raised an issue of procedural nullity. The case was filed in 2017 against the former official, under a special proce- dure intended to facilitate debt col- lection by government departments. This procedure requires the debtor to be notified by judicial act and a sworn declaration by the head of the depart- ment which, if not contested will have the same effect as a court judgment. Gafà had previously been in the head- lines over the Libyan medical visas scandal and his frequent trips to Libya, in which he claimed to have coordinat- ed efforts to stymie illegal migration from the failed North African state. But to use this procedure, the law re- quires several requirements to be met and the procedure didn't apply to any sort of debt due to the Government, but only those listed in the law. This meant the court procedures were null. The court, presided over by Magis- trate Simone Grech also pointed out it had the competence and obligation at law to raise issues of procedural nullity. This on the basis of the fact that the procedure at law was not adopted, as the payment was allegedly made by accident and doesn't qualify as a debt under the article of the law in question. The Court ruled the sworn declaration notifying Gafà with the judicial act had no effect and cleared him. An appeal has been filed. Health department files appeal on Gafà judgement