Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/934206
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018 News 3 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Caruana Galizia was assas- sinated on 16 October, 2017 in a car bomb outside her home. Three men, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat, have been charged with her murder. Pilatus Bank filed the suit in the jurisdiction of the host of daph neca r ua naga l i zia.com. But the bank filed a notice of dismissal – probably without having ever served the law- suit to Caruana Galizia – a day after her assassination. A source who knew of the lawsuit said the case could not be publicised before serv- ing Caruana Galizia. The source said the compensatory damages, which were to be specified throughout the tri- al, would have run into mil- lions of dollars. "The bank wanted to tell the court that they had lost con- siderable business because of her, to request suitable dam- ages for that loss." In the lawsuit, Pilatus com- plained that Caruana Gali- zia's posts were defamatory and false. "Pilatus Bank was not set up to criminally launder mon- ey… Mr Sadr has not commit- ted any criminal acts. Pilatus does not have accounts for Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat, his wife Michelle Muscat, Tillgate, Hearnville or Egrant Inc. Pilatus Bank did not par- ticipate in the transactions described… executives did not order staff to conceal in- formation from government investigators." Pilatus also denied having held a safe in the kitchen – allegedly having held a dec- laration of trust indicating Michelle Muscat's name as owner of Egrant – or that it had secret documents con- nected to Muscat. "As a private bank, Pi- latus Bank 's reputation and trustworthiness is essential to its ability to operate as a bank… defendant's defama- tory statements foreseeably caused substantial damage to these relationships and threaten to irreparably de- stroy those relationships, and thereby destroy Pilatus Bank itself." Pilatus said Caruana Gali- zia's statements had "caused disruption and termination" of prospective economic re- lationships, and accused her of having "intentionally mis- appropriated and published Pilatus Bank's confidential information, including cus- tomer names." The bank, in suing the journalist for defamation, tortious interference with business expectancy and in- jurious falsehood, accused Caruana Galizia of intending to bring Pilatus and Sadr into disrepute, and of publishing her statements with actual malice. "Defendant's conduct was intentional, malicious, racist, abhorrent, and oppressive, justifying an award of puni- tive damages," Pilatus Bank said. Sadr, presenting him- self as an American citizen, was often referred to by his Iranian ethnicity as the son of one of Iran's richest men, banker Seyed Mohammad Sadr Hasheminejad. The bank was extensively featured in Caruana Galizia's blog, mainly with the post that alleged that Michelle Muscat was the owner of the mysterious Egrant Inc. Joseph Muscat dubbed the allegation "the biggest lie in Maltese political history" and requested the police to request a magisterial inquiry. The inquiry is still ongoing. TIA RELJIC THE sudden increase in re- cruits at Wasteserv is justified due to the increase of waste and other variables, Wasteserv CEO Tonio Montebello said. Speaking at a public accounts committee meeting in Parlia- ment yesterday where he was called as a witness, Montebello said that the company needed to include a night shift and in- vest in new machinery. Last year, the PN requested an investigation into the re- cruitment process of Was- teserv employees between Jan- uary 2016 and June 2017. The letter, signed mid last year, was addressed to Beppe Fenech Adami. It was signed by PN representatives on the committee Kristy Debono and Claudio Grech, as well as PN environment spokesperson Karol Aquilina. Montebello said that the en- tity had a shortage of workers, and that he requested more employees to be engaged in 2016. PN MP Karol Aquilina urged Montebello to justify the spike in employees which he said occurred in the five weeks around the time of the general election. 112 new employees were en- gaged during that time. Montebello said that the in- dustry is a very particular one as it exhibits a high turnover of people, since the work is dangerous, dirty, and difficult. He said that he is not privy to whether Wasteserv has asked employees to do work which goes beyond the scope of the company. The company required an in- crease in employees for a long time, Montebello said, as the Sant'Antnin plant was old and used antiquated technology. The entity experimented in other ways to increase efficien- cy but did not have satisfactory results. Asked by Grech whether there was a man power plan, Monte- bello said that the May 2017 fire created an issue which the com- pany was not expecting. "We needed people to deal with this, as well as other variables beyond our control," Montebello said, explaining that despite the fact that the entity did in fact have a man power plan, the circumstances rendered it useless. PL MP Julia Farrugia Portelli pointed out that from the data provided by Montebello, it ap- pears that half of those who commenced employment at Wasteserv in fact terminated it, to which Montebello main- tained that it was normal for the turnover to be that big due to the nature of the work involved. The Committee asked Mon- tebello to provide further in- formation on how the work- force is separated, including a copy of the formal requests to increase the workforce, and a copy of the management ac- counts. The meeting came two days after the General Workers Un- ion (GWU) ordered an indus- trial action in Wasteserv Ltd due to unpaid allowances and other shortcomings related to the pay of workers. The GWU said that it had registered an industrial dis- pute back in August of last year for the same reason. Employment spike is justified - Wasteserv CEO PN asked for investigation after spike in employees in the weeks leading up to the general election Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad Pilatus complained that Caruana Galizia's posts were defamatory and false