FIAU and MFSA confidential information sparked Pilatus investigation in 2018 timesofmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Disgrace to democracy
In the same way that co-option (a mechanism to replace MPs who die or are incapacitated) has been ‘gamed’ by the Labour and Nationalist parties to get anyone they want into parliament, the just-approved gender-correcting mechanism will also be manipulated.
The two big parties now have an incentive not to put women on their ticket so that they get six extra seats each without effort. The number of MPs with no or few votes from the electorate (already high) will soar. Taxpayers will pay for this monetarily (MPs are expensive) and democratically.
These MPs plucked out of nowhere will not be accountable to a constituency because they won’t have one. Instead, they will be beholden to the party leaders on whose grace and favour their political life depends. Shame that the PN, once a champion of democratic norms, went along with this underhanded power grab. No wonder that civil-rights-minded individuals have switched from supporting the PN to backing NGOs and
Pilatus Bank magisterial inquiry cost €7.5 million
Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis reveals magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank cost taxpayers €7.5 million
20 April 2021, 6:24pm
by Karl Azzopardi
Zammit Lewis was replying to a parliamentary question put forward by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.
The bank’s details were not divulged in the justice minister’s reply, but he confirmed that he was referring to Pilatus Bank in a Facebook post.
The inquiry was concluded in December, having been led by Magistrate Ian Farrugia. Its conclusions are yet to be published.
The inquiry had been launched in November 2018, just days before the bank was shut down by the European Central Bank (ECB).
A magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank cost €7.5 million, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said in Parliament on Tuesday.
He was replying to a question by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.
Both Azzopardi and the minister did not mention the bank by name, but Times of Malta has confirmed that the question referred to Pilatus Bank.
The inquiry, by Magistrate Ian Farrugia, was concluded in December last year but its conclusions were not published.
Times of Malta had reported on December 14 that the voluminous inquiry report had been handed to the State Prosecutor to be assessed for possible criminal action. Sources had said that the report recommended criminal proceedings be initiated against a number of bank personnel.
Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday demanded action by the police for the arraignment of officials from Pilatus and BNP Paribas banks for their alleged involvement in plots that were robbing the Maltese people of millions of euro.
Speaking in parliament on the adjournment, Azzopardi said the authorities needed to explain how officials of Pilatus Bank have not been arrested yet, even though a magisterial inquiry which cost taxpayers €7.5 million had ordered legal action against them for money laundering.
Times of Malta had reported in December that the inquiry was concluded and handed to the state prosecutor.
Details about its cost were given in reply to a parliamentary question earlier on Tuesday.