Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/558086
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 19 AUGUST 2015 • ISSUE 429 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.00 EDITORIAL PAGE 10 FIMBank p.l.c. is a licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority and listed on the Malta Stock Exchange. The Bank is a participant in the Depositor Compensation Scheme in Malta. Terms and conditions apply. 2132 2102 helpdesk@easisave.com www.easisave.com 2132 2102 2132 2102 No Hidden Fees or Bank Charges Individual or Joint Account Option Easy, Flexible and Secure Visit our website, open your online bank account and start beneting from superior interest rates on your savings and xed term deposit accounts. US Dollar Fixed Term Deposit 3 month: 0.75% 6 month: 1.25% 9 month: 1.50% 1 year: 2.00% 2 year: 2.50% 3 year: 2.75% 3 month: 1.50% 6 month: 1.65% 9 month: 1.75% 1 year: 1.85% 2 year: 2.00% 3 year: 2.50% Euro Fixed Term Deposit Minimum Deposit €1,000 Minimum Deposit $1,000 Rates of interest are on a gross per annum basis Rates of interest are on a gross per annum basis Euro Savings Account Minimum Deposit €50 US Dollar Savings Account Minimum Deposit $50 1.25 % 0.40 % Newspaper post Money laundering charges for Libyans' favourite auditor Former Labour Party treasurer Joe Sammut faces fraud and money laundering charges for the registration of false companies to aid Libyans fl eeing war obtain residency in Malta MATTHEW AGIUS A court has frozen all assets belong- ing to auditor Joe Sammut, after he was arraigned under arrest yester- day on a host of charges relating to money laundering, fraud, misappro- priation and forgery. Police Inspectors Jonathan Ferris, Lara Butters and William Scicluna charged Sammut, a former Labour Party treasurer, with 11 offences in all, including breaching his profes- sional duties as an accountant, mis- appropriation, fraud, falsification of documents and non-observance of due diligence procedures and money laundering. Sammut had previously been re- leased on police bail after being held for questioning over allegations of aiding Libyan nationals to obtain a residency permit by creating fake companies, and was questioned at length by the Economic Crimes Unit over the registration of hundreds of Libyan companies in Malta Three Libyan witnesses produced by the prosecution yesterday testified before Magistrate Doreen Clarke. Hesham Salaheddin Ahmed, gen- eral manager of MES Ltd, a medical equipment import/export company in Libya, said he had applied for a residency permit through Sammut. He asked for Sammut's help to set up a company in Malta. "I paid €2,000 and his office handled all the appli- cations." He explained, however, that the company was not yet operating be- cause his residency application had been blocked. The police had shown him a copy of the application for resi- dency and he had not recognised the signature, he said. "The details on the front page are mine but the sig- nature is not," said Ahmed. PAGE 6 Joe Sammut in court yesterday Nurse pleads guilty to indecent assault in ambulance MAT THEW AGIUS A male nurse was placed under probation for two years yester- day after admitting charges of violent indecent assault in con- nection with an incident that took place in an ambulance on Sunday afternoon. Prosecuting Inspectors Sylvana Briffa and Jonathan Ransley also charged Lawrence Debono, 39, with committing a crime which he was duty-bound to prevent. The accused 's law yer, Jason Azzopardi, told the court that the accused admitted and apolo- gised unreservedly to the victim, describing the assault as "a mo- ment of madness". Law yer Franco Debono, ap- pearing in parte civile, accepted the apology on behalf of the vic- tim. The allegation of indecent as- sault had been made by a 20- year-old Iranian woman who was being transferred to Mater Dei General Hospital from her home. Media reports claim that the woman had been left on a stretcher in the A&E department for a considerable amount of time and made her initial report to police officers who happened to be at the hospital as she was trying to leave. Details of the assault itself or the events leading up to it were not made public. In court yesterday, Magistrate Doreen Clarke ordered the law- yers and prosecuting officers to make their submissions in chambers, leaving the accused in the dock, pensively gazing at his shoes, until the law yers finally emerged, some 15 minutes later. The court placed the man un- der probation for two years and ordered a ban on the publication of the name of the victim. Law yers Jason Azzopardi and Chris Busietta defended the ac- cused, while law yers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeo Mifsud appeared as parte civile for the Iranian wom- an. The 39-year-old nurse pleaded guilty and apologised for assaulting the woman in an ambulance