Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/937440
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018 News 2 MATTHEW VELLA THE private bank Pilatus were planning to sue Maltese media houses as well as the late jour- nalist Daphne Caruana Galizia for defamation in an American court for damages of up to $40 million. The Lawrence Law Group of Washington DC had written a 13-page letter on 16 October 2017 to media houses on behalf of Pilatus Bank to sue them in the US courts, saying: "The bank estimates that its damag- es resulting from the false and defamatory statements identi- fied could exceed $40 million. Be advised that the Bank and Mr Sadr have already com- menced litigation in the US against Maltese defendant(s) seeking damages and injunc- tive relief." The letter was cited in an ad- journment speech by Nation- alist MP Jason Azzopardi on Monday evening. Sadr and Pilatus sued Daphne Caruana Galizia on 8 May 2017 in the Maricopa County supe- rior court, in the state of Ari- zona, where internet domain registrar GoDaddy.com's head- quarters are located. The lawsuit, which had an unspecified claim for damages, was filed at the time Caruana Galizia had alleged that the bank had processed a $1 mil- lion transfer from a Dubai com- pany to the wife of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at the behest of the daughter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The reports prompted a mag- isterial inquiry over allega- tions that Muscat's wife was the beneficial owner of Egrant Inc, a secret offshore company revealed a year earlier in the Panama Papers. 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 ne c a r u a n aga l i z i a .com . But the bank filed a notice of dismissal – probably without having ever served the lawsuit to Caruana Galizia – a day af- ter her assassination. In the lawsuit, Pilatus com- plained that Caruana Galizia's posts were defamatory and false. "Pilatus Bank was not set up to criminally launder money… Mr Sadr has not committed any criminal acts. Pilatus does not have accounts for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his wife Michelle Muscat, Tillgate, Hearnville or Egrant Inc. Pila- tus Bank did not participate in the transactions described… executives did not order staff to conceal information from government investigators." Pilatus also denied having held a safe in the kitchen – allegedly having held a declaration of trust indicating Michelle Mus- cat's name as owner of Egrant – or that it had secret documents connected to Muscat. "As a private bank, Pilatus Bank's reputation and trust- worthiness is essential to its ability to operate as a bank… defendant's defamatory state- ments foreseeably caused substantial damage to these relationships and threaten to irreparably destroy those rela- tionships, and thereby destroy Pilatus Bank itself." Pilatus said Caruana Gali- zia's statements had "caused disruption and termination" of prospective economic relation- ships, and the bank accused her of having "intentionally misappropriated and published Pilatus Bank's confidential in- formation, including customer names." The bank, in suing the jour- nalist for defamation, tor- tious interference with busi- ness expectancy and injurious falsehood, accused Caruana Galizia of intending to bring Pilatus and Sadr into disre- pute, and of publishing her statements with actual malice. "Defendant's conduct was intentional, malicious, rac- ist, abhorrent, and oppressive, justifying an award of punitive damages," Pilatus Bank said. Sadr, presenting himself as an American citizen, was often referred to by his Iranian eth- nicity as the son of one of Iran's richest men, banker Seyed Mo- hammad 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 mysteri- ous Egrant Inc. Joseph Muscat dubbed the allegation "the biggest lie in Maltese political history" and requested the police to request a magisterial inquiry. The in- quiry is still ongoing. Pilatus lawyers said damages for US lawsuit against Malta journalists would reach $40 million Pilatus Bank had sued Daphne Caruana Galizia in the state of Arizona for damages which lawyer Lawrence Law Group had estimated at $40 million for defamation Daphne Caruana Galizia leaving the law courts with lawyer Edward Zammit Maempel YANNICK PACE CUSTOMS Department officials stationed at the Malta Freeport Terminal seized close to "20 million fake items" in 2017 – an all-time record – the depart- ment said this afternoon. "This achievement has been hailed by the Global Anti Coun- terfeiting Group, who crowned the local Customs Department as being the leading National Body in the IPR field earlier last year," read a statement. It said that even though there were many people who consid- ered counterfeiting not to be a problem, in reality, it was a source of funding for criminal organisations. The department added that the practice also promoted "child la- bour, human trafficking and ter- rorism among others". "Counterfeit operations al- so interfere with economic growth," it added. The department also said that earlier this year it had launched its "new scanning facility and scanning vehicle" at the Malta Freeport which aimed to boost the number of seizures and "al- low for a faster flow of contain- ers through the Customs areas, in order not to hamper trade op- erations". ypace@mediatoday.com.mt Customs seized close to 20 million fake items in 2017 New equipment at the Malta Freeport Terminal allowed the department to seize items including cigarettes, wristwatches, phones, shoes and toothbrushes List of seized items: 19.53 million counterfeit cigarettes 162,000 counterfeit toothbrushes 78,000 pairs of counterfeit shoes 33,000 counterfeit mobile phones covers 28,000 counterfeit mobile phones batteries 24,000 counterfeit clothes 7,800 counterfeit wristwatches 7,700 counterfeit sport wear and sport items 2,300 automobile parts 1,500 earphones