Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1501789
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 21 JUNE 2023 MAT THEW VELLA THE shuttered Maltese bank Satabank was used by a Ukrainian gas firm to channel payments to American pres- ident Joe Biden's son Hunter. The details emerge from a leaked cache of documents and images found in a laptop be- longing to Hunter Biden, who was at one point employed by gas firm Burisma in 2014. The allegation is that Sata- bank – investigated over a slew of suspicious transactions that included organised criminali- ty – was used to flout money laundering rules, according to claims by a longstanding FBI informant, for a $10 mil- lion payment from Burisma to Hunter, using various offshore transactions. The emails from the Biden laptop show income state- ments, pasport details and utility bills sent to Burisma ex- ecutive Vadym Pozharskyi, to set up an account at Satabank in 2016. In a bid to provide a dec- laration of source of wealth, Pozharskyi is believed to have enrolled the services of Mal- tese auctioneer Pierre Grech Pillow, and his company PGP Trading, who was charged in 2020 with money laundering. The charges against Grech Pillow emanated from a suspi- cious transaction report over the sale of a disassembled oil rig involving Burisma. But Grech Pillow's defence lawyer insisted that the trans- action was carried out with due diligence and bank ap- proval. The court case revealed that Burisma owner Mykola Zol- chevsky rented Grech Pillow's apartment in Ta' Xbiex in 2014, to apply for a Maltese golden passport. Both Zlochevsky and Buris- ma had been the targets of a fi- nancial crime investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office that year, although the case was closed without charges. The FBI revealed to Congress that an informant told them of an alleged $10 million money laundering and bribery scheme involving Hunter. The House Oversight Com- mittee said they were tipped off to the existence of a docu- ment detailing the scheme by the whistleblower. Initially rebuffed by the FBI when they demanded a copy, the Bureau relented when FBI director Christopher Wray risked being held in contempt of Congress. The 30 June, 2020 document is a write-up of claims by a longstanding informant who had been paid a total $200,000 by the FBI since 2010 for infor- mation. The informant claimed Bu- risma owner Zlochevsky told them about his scheme to pay $5 million each to Hunter and his father Joe Biden, through a network of bank accounts, as a bribe to halt an investigation of Burisma by Ukrainian pros- ecutor Viktor Shokin, and to facilitate favourable treatment of the gas company. Documents from Satabank found in leaked cache of Hunter Biden laptop connect son of US President to Ukrainian gas firm Satabank used for alleged $10 million bribe to Hunter Biden from Ukrainian gas firm US president Joe Biden has faced repeated questions over the contents of a laptop belonging to his son, Hunter (pictured) Screenshots of emails from Biden's laptop