Following my investigation and story about Robert Abela’s and Lydia Abela’s money laundering practices, the story is now also being investigated by both The Shift and Times of Malta. As always happens in these cases, the press is late to pick up stories of financial crime due to their seemingly complex nature, but Robert Abela’s case in this matter is very clear-cut and explicit.
Bank of Valletta has given a statement to the Times of Malta on Robert Abela’s money laundering practices and they admitted that they are irregular and at minimum, they seem to show a case of tax evasion and obfuscation of funds. It is much more than that. It is also clear and explicit money laundering of drug money and other illegal proceeds.
Bank of Valletta is clearly trying to save itself in this matter by washing its hands and declaring that despite the transactions being suspicious, the bank has made an internal review. Yet, an internal review is not a substitute for the law which obliges the bank to alert the authorities of the suspected wrongdoing via a Suspicious Transaction Report that has to be filed to the FIAU. Given that Bank of Valletta is aware that the transactions are suspicious, its investigation does not make it less complicit in money laundering – it aggravates it because it has made the bank even more aware of the irregularity without having taken the necessary action. Basically, it’s illegal for a bank to be aware of irregular activity through its accounts and fail to alert the authorities about it.
Robert Abela, as a child who has been spoiled all his life and has no comprehension of what he is doing, genuinely thinks that he can control this crisis of his and fly out of it with impunity because he is the Prime Minister and controls the country. It doesn’t work that way with a bank, even if you control the bank through a majority shareholding of government shares.
Banks today have clear and explicit international guidelines on money laundering practices. If Bank of Valletta is known to have been abetting and protecting the money laundering of a Prime Minister who is literally laundering drug money through the bank, that’s an activity that can compromise the bank and the trust it enjoys with international institutions.
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