Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/976374
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 2 MAY 2018 Analysis 7 By 2016 more than 50 accounts at Pilatus, holding the majority of the bank's more than 250 million eu- ros ($307 million) of deposits, were operated for the ultimate benefit of Azeris with close ties to Azerbaijan's leadership. The biggest clients were companies ultimately controlled by two children of Ilham Aliyev. The implications The Daphne Project has largely confirmed claims made by whistle- blower Maria Efimova and Daphne Caruana Galizia that the bank served companies linked to Azeri oligarchs including Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, daughters of President Il- ham Aliyev. This case is best summed up by a report by Reuters news agency which notes that although many of Caruana Galizia's claims, including the one about corrupt payments, re- main unproven "one of her key find- ings has held up: The bank, called Pilatus Bank, did depend for much of its business on the Azeri elite". The international implications are that the ruling elite in the cen- tral Asian republic is hiving off its wealth abroad by using secretive offshore companies. The local implication is that a bank was specifically created for this purpose. Pilatus' profitability depended to a large extent on a few select PEPs, the majority of whom were Azeris. Moreover, this hap- pened in a context of closer rela- tionship between the government of Azerbaijan and Malta, under- lined in energy deals between the two countries. The fact that Keith Schembri also had an account at Pilatus Bank, which received sus- picious payments currently under investigation, also raises questions. Yet, so far, the Daphne Project has shed no light on Caruana Galizia's claim that Egrant belonged to Mi- chelle Muscat and had received a payment from Leyla Aliyeva. The seriousness of this claim, which prompted Muscat to call an early election and is still subject to a mag- isterial inquiry, had eclipsed other serious allegations made in the past two years. A year later Egrant still provides Muscat with the opportunity to divert the focus from questions on more substantiated allegations by citing lack of proof on what he calls "the biggest lie in Maltese political history". Fact 4 Fact 5 Leyla Aliyeva is probably a client of Pilatus Bank No politicians interviewed in Caruana Galizia murder probe No politicians have been interviewed in Caruana Galizia's murder probe According to two witness- es, approached separately by journalists and interviewed by members of the 'Daphne Project', Economy Minister Chris Cardona was seen drinking with one of the murder suspects at the bar. One of the witnesses saw the suspect Alfred Degior- gio and Cardona at the bar one day in November, some time between 4.30pm and 6.15pm. This witness said Car- dona and Degiorgio spoke for some time and, at one point, he claimed he spotted them walking outside to- gether. The Daphne Project confirmed that no politi- cians had been interviewed in the police investigations. The international press also specified that a high-rank- ing official of the Nationalist Party introduced one of the eye witnesses to them. The implications The information related to Caruana Galizia's murder was relevant in the context of the reluctance of the po- lice force to interrogate po- litical actors which had an axe to grind with Caruana Galizia. Yet Cardona's presence in a popular bar also frequented by criminals is not so shock- ing in a small country like Malta where a number of politicians on both sides have regular contact with criminals due to their role as criminal lawyers. While eyewitness accounts of Cardona talking to the accused before and after Caruana Galizia's death are newsworthy, it is difficult to assess the veracity of these accounts. What is remarkable is the drastic change in Cardona's reaction to the story; from a prudent "I do not recall" re- ply to a more belligerent al- legation of an international frame-up, which is being or- chestrated against him. "Like most seasoned crimi- nal lawyers in Malta, I know who some of the suspects in the case are. The particular pub you mention welcomes patrons from all walks of life, including other politicians… I do not, however, recall hav- ing any discussions with any of these individuals, and have definitely never had any meetings with them. Any- thing else is baseless rumour and speculation," Cardona said in his first reaction. But speaking on Dissett a week later, he accused the journalists' consortium working on 'The Daphne Project' of conducting what he described as a frame-up on him.