Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1256426
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JUNE 2020 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA THE owner of the shuttered private bank Pilatus was yesterday greeted by a ra- re move from the United States federal prosecutors, who requested to withdraw a criminal case against Ali Sadr Hashem- inejad, convicted of violating U.S. sanc- tions against Iran back in March. Hasheminejad's bank in Malta was shut down and investigated by the financial regulator (MFSA) and the Financial In- telligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) short- ly after being arrested at Dulles airport, Washington in February 2018. He was earlier implicated in a raft of allegations reported by the assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, over bank accounts held by Joseph Muscat's former chief of staff Keith Schembri at his bank, and famously, the Egrant affair. In a filing on Friday in a Manhattan fed- eral court, prosecutors asked a judge for permission to drop the case, a rare move, citing the likelihood of continued litiga- tion over suppression of evidence. Given the resources that would be required to address all the evidentiary issues, contin- uing to pursue the case "would not be in the interest of justice," they said. Hasheminejad, 40, had yet to receive sentencing after being found guilty of five counts, the highest of which carries a 30-year prison sentence: conspiracy 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 conspir- acy to commit money laundering. Hasheminejad's lawyer, Reid Weingar- ten, told Bloomberg he was not sure why the government brought the "extraordi- nary motion" to drop the case. He had al- ready filed for appeal on what he claimed was exculpatory evidence revealed by the government after the verdict, including undisclosed interviews with witnesses. "We hope it's that they finally saw the case as we did – that it never should have been brought and it was compromised from the very beginning," Weingarten said. "The whole concept of violating sanc- tions is you're acting contrary to the interests of the United States. The over- whelming evidence is that this was a fel- low who was utterly patriotic, was thrilled to live in the United States, wanted to live in the United States for the rest of his life and was incredibly hostile to the Iranian government." Caruana Galizia family reaction The family of assassinated journal- ist Daphne Caruana Galizia reacted to the news saying his US prosecution was ending on the basis of "an alleged tech- nical, procedural issue, and only in rela- tion to charges of a breach of US sanc- tions. None of this changes the evidence against Hasheminejad, which remains overwhelming". The evidence against Hasheminejad was that he used the US banking system to il- legally channel as well as disguise US dol- lar payments from a Venezuelan housing project on behalf of his family company, to other subsidiaries which were Irani- an-owned, in breach of US sanctions. "Proceedings in the United States do not exempt or prevent the Malta Police and Attorney General from prosecuting Ali Sadr Hasheminejad. On the contra- ry, it is now more important than ever that he is prosecuted in Malta, since he has destroyed Malta's reputation in the process of using the country as a base for facilitating criminal activity, via Pilatus Bank. For this reason, the Government of Malta must request his extradition im- mediately," the Daphne Foundation said in a statement. Accusations Hasheminejad had been accused of us- ing the US financial system to funnel over $115 million in payments from a con- struction project in Venezuela his father's construction company was involved in, back to his family's companies in Eu- rope. The US Attorney insisted these vi- olated sanctions against Iran because it benefitted Iranian individuals and enti- ties, including the Iranian International Housing Company and its Iranian owner, Hasheminejad's father Mohammad Sadr Hasheminejad. 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 oligarchs. His bank was implicated in the Egrant affair, when Caruana Galizia claimed the bank had processed a $1 million payment from the Aliyevs of Azer- baijan to the wife of former prime minister Joseph Muscat. The al- legation was disproven by a Mal- tese magisterial inquiry along with other allegations she made about Pilatus Bank, but by then the banks' other dealings for Azerbaijan had come under the lens of finan- cial investigators. When Hashem- inejad 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 accused of evading US economic sanc- tions by concealing the role of Iranian par- ties in US dollar payments from the construction of housing units in Venezuela. The project was led by Stratus Group, an Iranian conglomerate controlled by Hasheminejad and his family. Stratus incorporated a company in Tehran, the Iranian Interna- tional Housing Company (IIHC) and built approximately 7,000 housing units in Venezuela in ex- change for approximately $475 million. Prosecutors said Hashemine- jad used a St Kitts and Nevis passports and a United Arab Emirates address to incorporate Clarity Trade and Finance in Switzerland, and Stratus International Contracting in Turkey, so that he con- ceals the Iranian connection to the US dollar payments. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt PN, Repubblika want extradition Pilatus banker graced by rare US move to stop Iran sanctions case THE Nationalist Party's spokespersons for justice and good governance, re- spectively Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina, yesterday gave full support to a request by the family of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia for the extradition of Pilatus Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad from the US to face justice in Malta. "The PN reminds that according to a report by the FIAU, Keith Schem- bri had taken a particular interest in Ali Sadr Hasheminejad being given a banking licence for Pilatus Bank… This account was used by Keith Schembri to receive money coming from bribes on the sale of passports to three Russian citizens…[and] to receive payments from Adrian Hillman, the ex-manag- ing director of Allied Newspapers," the MPs said. The allegations have been the sub- ject of magisterial inquiries filed on a criminal complaint by the PN's former leader Simon Busuttil back in 2017. "Our country mustn't allow Ali Sadr Hasheminejad es- cape justice but must do everything possible for him to answer for the reputational damage his inflicted on our coun- try with his complicity and protection of Jo- seph Muscat and Keith Schembri," the MPs said. The PN said Prime Minister Robert Abela had to choose between defending the interests and reputation of Malta or allow Ali Sadr to escape to carry on defending Muscat and Schembri, the PN said. Civil society group Repubblika also expressed its disappoint- ment with the decision by the US prosecutor to drop the case. "The crimes for which he was found guilty in New York took place before Ali Sadr was li- cenced to open Pilatus Bank in Malta. Maltese state agencies and the European Central Bank confirmed that which Daphne Caruana Galizia had reported: that Pilatus Bank was a money laundering machine and a shel- ter for corruption." The US proceedings had shown that the bank had been used by relatives of brutal dic- tators to launder money they had stolen from their countries, said Re- pubblika. For these reasons, the group stressed that the Maltese Attorney General must ask for Ali Sadr be extra- dited to Malta with urgency. Caruana Galizia family says Iranian banker should be extradited to Malta