Pilatus Bank official shielded from prosecution had ‘connections’ to Robert Abela, new book claims

Updated at 1:50pm with OPM statement

An order not to charge a senior Pilatus Bank official may have been influenced by her relatives’ past professional relationship with Prime Minister Robert Abela, a new book suggests.

The claim is made by Repubblika President Robert Aquilina in the book Pilatus: A Laundromat Bank in Europe, which was launched this morning at the Old University in Valletta.

The allegation, which is based on what an unnamed source purportedly told Aquilina, is one of the most serious detailed in the book.

It concerns former Pilatus risk manager Antoniella Gauci and her subaltern Mehmet Tasli, who were among seven individuals indicated in the Pilatus magisterial inquiry as suspects over money laundering and other financial crimes.

The magistrate had recommended prosecution against all seven but the police eventually only charged the bank and money laundering reporting officer Claudanne Sant-Fournier despite having issued international arrest warrants for Tasli and other foreign officials. The case against the two is ongoing and they deny the charges.

Robert Aquilina (Photo: Miguela Xuereb/Newsbook)

Aquilina’s book says that Gauci’s father and brother were legal clients and political canvassers to Prime Minister Robert Abela, suggesting this could have been a factor in the issuing of a nolle prosequi – an order not to press charges – by the Attorney General in contravention of the magistrate’s orders.

The 750-page tome contains 500 pages of evidence, including the complete Duff and Phelps report submitted as part of the magisterial inquiry, together with transcriptions of internal police emails which Aquilina says show that there has been a cover-up in the investigation into the now-shuttered bank.

Only handwritten copies of the emails are reproduced in the book, with the author explaining that publication of the originals would have opened his source up to identification and retribution.

Pilatus Bank shut down in 2018 after its licence was withdrawn by the European Central Bank on instruction from the Malta Financial Services Authority, In 2021, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit slapped the shuttered bank with a €4.9 million fine for letting millions in potentially shady cash flow into Malta unchecked.

The transcripts read as follows:

• The first, flagged as “high importance” was sent on Tuesday 13 July 2021 at 9:04am by (Now former) Police Inspector Keith Vella to Police inspectors Claire Borg and Pauline Bonello. “Good morning colleagues. When you have some time, think of a few points because of Antoniella’s and Tasli’s nolle prosequi. We need to have a clear picture by the end of this week please.”

• The second, sent by Vella to the same recipients, now with the then Deputy Commissioner Alexandra Mamo and Superintendent Frank Tabone - both of whom have since left the force, in CC on August 10 at 05:47am with the subject line “Nolle Prosequi Request (Mehmet Tasli/Antoniella Jane Gauci) reads:

“In relation to the subject in caption, please find attached the nolle prosequi request to the AG. Kindly go through the document, amend, delete and add any information you deem/ not deem fit in the circumstances. Also kindly enclose the report with the analysis and the replies received from financial institutions and other government bodies. Please check me and on the NPG and NPG being referred in the proces verbal on whether the undersigned have referenced them well as I do not have a copy of the proces verbal handy. If you need any clarifications, please let me know.”

• Replying to all parties to that email at 7am that same morning, Deputy Commissioner Mamo writes: “Good morning - Thank you would be an understatement. Inspectors Bonello and Borg - this report has to reach the Attorney General through this office by not later than tomorrow since the Criminal Inquest will be remitted to the AG today and there is a lengthy protocol to obtain the nolle prosequi. Supt. Tabone - ensure that this report reaches my desk tomorrow so that I will transmit it to the AG. Wish you a fruitful day - stay safe.”

European and international arrest warrants

The Attorney General had signed off on European and International Arrest warrants against Tasli on 24 February, 2021, according to the documents published in the book.

“These warrants were drafted by the Police Force,” Aquilina writes. “It is manifestly clear that when they were handed to [Inquiring Magistrate Ian Farrugia] and approved by him, in February 2021, the intention of the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General was to charge in court all those whom Magistrate Farrugia had directed the authorities to prosecute. This position is diametrically opposed to the position taken just five months later, in August 2021, by the very same people, vis-a-vis the very same person, Mehmet Tasli.”

Aquilina says something must have happened between the moment when the arrest warrants were issued and the moment when it was agreed between the police force and the Attorney General to issue nolle prosequi in respect of both Antoniella Jane Gauci and Mehmet Tasli.

Aquilina points out that this was not simply an order to delay, pending further investigation and collection of further evidence. “They were given a declaration personally signed by the Attorney General that they would not be prosecuted. Why would the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General go so far out of their way and risk exposing themselves to harsh criticism, to effectively give immunity from prosecution to two persons, in blatant contradiction of the clear directions they had received from the Inquiring Magistrate?”

Prime Minister Robert Abela acted as lawyer to the fa (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

Close political connections

The book cites an unnamed source as suggesting that the intention had been to shield Gauci from prosecution “possibly, indeed probably, due to her and her family’s close political connections.”  

That source goes on to claim that Gauci’s father and brother were political canvassers for Prime Minister Robert Abela, who had been the Gauci family business’ lawyer while he was still in private practice.

Aquilina states that the Gauci family owns a service station in Qormi, which is part of the Sixth electoral district where Abela was elected to parliament in 2017 and quotes online news portal The Shift, which had published an article stating that court records show Abela to have served as the Gauci family’s lawyer in at least two cases between 2009 and 2015.

The car into which NET TV cameras had captured Pilatus Bank Chairman Ali Sadr and Antoniella Gauci leaving the bank offices and loading two large bags on the now infamous night of 21 April, 2017, was also registered to Gauci’s father, Aquilina adds.

Tasli was junior to Gauci in the Bank’s management structure, which meant that Gauci could not be absolved if her subaltern was prosecuted alone, the author explains. This meant that any decision to absolve Gauci from prosecution, necessarily meant that Tasli would also have to be let off the hook.

Office of the Prime Minister says allegation is untrue

In a statement on Saturday, the Office of the Prime Minister said the country's institutions work independently and with complete autonomy. 

"The government led by Robert Abela gave citizens new tools to contest decisions taken by institutions, as is happening in the case being referred to in the book by the very same author and which procedures are still pending before the courts," the OPM said.

The reference is to the right that was introduced a couple of years ago enabling anybody to challenge the Attorney General's decision not to charge individuals in what is known in legal terms as nolle prosequi. Aquilina and Repubblika are challenging the AG's decision to issue a nolle prosequi in the Pilatus Bank case.

"This shows government's trust in the institutions, and any allegation that could be intended to condition pending court procedures, is just an untrue allegation," the OPM said.